Decision nears on NYC congestion pricing plan

NEW YORK — What kind of person drives into Manhattan on a day when there’s a gridlock alert and snow in the forecast? Someone like Linda Mulligan of Upper Monclair, N.J., who commutes by car to her job as a fashion designer and who doesn’t like Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s plan to follow London’s example and charge drivers $8 to enter the busiest part of Manhattan. “I think it’s horrible,” Mulligan said she left her car in a parking lot last week. “I’ve traveled to London. I’ve talked to taxi drivers there. They say it has not improved anything at all.” Bloomberg unveiled his so-called congestion pricing plan as part of his agenda for a greener New York last April and got a boost from the federal government, which promised the city $354 million. But Bloomberg hit a roadblock of opposition from drivers and their elected representatives. With the plan in peril, he and the state Legislature set up a commission to examine congestion pricing and other potential routes toward the goal of reducing traffic. The commission has until the end of January to recommend a plan, which will then go to the Legislature and the City Council. At its meeting last week, the panel looked at alternatives like having cabs pick up passengers only at designated taxi stands and license plate rationing, under which a car with a license plate ending in 6 would be banned from Manhattan on the 6, 16 and 26 of each month. The mayor’s plan calls for charging $8 to drive into Manhattan south of 86 street on weekdays between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. Trucks would pay $21. If the panel does not approve Bloomberg’s congestion pricing plan, it must recommend another solution that projects at least a 6 percent decrease in traffic, as Bloomberg forecasts his plan will achieve.