Blog

Over at the Times' City Room blog and Andy Revkin's dotearth blog, there’s some lively debate about a recent poll that showed that more than two-thirds of New York City residents think that, over the next fifty years, parts of the City will have to be abandoned due to rising sea levels caused by global warming.

That’s a fun topic to debate, and a good one.

But what’s more significant today is that more than half of those polled agreed that we need to implement congestion pricing in Manhattan now, assuming the revenues are used for improving the region’s transit system. 

To me, that’s strong support, given that the notion of paying-to-drive is something that’s never been done in an American city before—and that the plan’s opponents have been slamming the proposal relentlessly for months.

Individual New Yorkers can always make a difference by leaving their car at home, and taking the train, bus, or subway to work—and most of us do.  But as I wrote yesterday, we need to find more than $29 billion over the next five years to rebuild and expand the transit system to give everybody more transit options and extra elbow room in years to come. 

Congestion pricing can provide as much as $6 billion of those funds. So, the next time you leave the car at home to come to Manhattan, and the next time you wonder about what you can do to help reduce congestion, air pollution and global warming, join me in supporting congestion pricing—and tell your legislators and friends to do so, too.