Congestion Pricing Stalls In Albany?

While New York City's congestion pricing tax has apparently stalled in Albany due to the annual budget process being what it normally is (snafu) plus serious concerns about fiscal tricks played by proponents with Port Authority funds, London's congestion pricing scheme may get an overhaul.

By overhaul, I mean a big tax increase for many drivers.

[Mayor Ken] Livingstone, locked in a bruising contest with conservative candidate Boris Johnson, has proposed levying a £25 (about $50) charge on vehicles deemed to be causing the worst pollution, including four-wheel drives such as “Chelsea Tractors,” Land Rovers dubbed as such because of their predominance in London’s ritzy southwestern borough.

The tax would replace the current £8 (around $16) congestion charge, implemented in February 2003 and aimed at combating pollution and overcrowding in central London’s traffic-choked streets.

The new charge is organized into three different price bands. While many drivers will continue to pay the £8 fee for their mid-range emission vehicles, those with cars that produce under 120 g/km of carbon dioxide, like the Volkswagen Polo, will no longer have to pay to drive across the capital city.

Meantime, those with high-end vehicles that produce more than 225 g/km, like almost all Porsches, Land Rovers and Mercedes, will have to pay £25. The new charges would start in October and affect anyone driving into the center between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. Monday to Friday.

Residents living within the congestion charge zone would also lose their current 90 percent discount and instead pay the same as those living outside the area.

'A complete rip-off'
Some workers and residents in the wealthy Kensington and Chelsea districts have protested Livingstone’s campaign.

“I don’t see why people who have bigger cars should have to pay more when some old cars produce worse (emissions),” said Philip Thornton, a driver for clients who own large vehicles such as Land Rovers.

“It’s a complete rip-off,” Thornton said, although he noted that considering the wealth of the neighborhoods, “£25 is pushing it, but a lot of people will just pay it.”

For central London workers who rely on their cars for transportation, the charge has added to their long list of woes, which already includes long waits in traffic and problems finding parking.

The new scheme would hit high-end vehicles, regardless of their emission output when compared to older vehicles that may actually produce higher levels of emissions. It would also hit everyone who currently lives within the central business district who owns a car - a massive tax hike on those people.

If the congestion pricing tax was really about reducing emissions, they would hike the costs across the board to deter all drivers from entering the central business district regardless of the vehicle being driven. Instead, you get a perverse situation where those drivers who have certain vehicles will avoid paying the fees altogether and still pollute the air and create congestion on the streets if they fit a narrow class of vehicles. Most everyone else will pay much more for the privilege of sitting in traffic.

Then, there's the not insignificant question of where the money raised from the congestion pricing is going. It certainly isn't going to improve transportation projects.

In New York, there's serious questions over the fiscal tricks being used to try and get the congestion pricing scheme through the Legislature. As the Port Authority has already raised its tolls to $8, vehicles coming in to New York City from New Jersey would not be affected by congestion pricing - which means that the Star Ledger article from yesterday was wrong as it considers the congestion pricing above and beyond the new tolls.

The commuters most affected will be those who currently use the free bridges into Manhattan from Brooklyn, Queens, or the Bronx, which helps explain why the outer borough representatives in the City Council opposed the measure. This is a back door attempt to put tolls on the free bridges.