The MTA’s Congestion Pricing Zone Plan is Just Plain Stupid!
I sent a letter to MTA Chairman Janno Lieber today on behalf of the TSO expressing my thoughts on this idiotic Congestion Pricing Zone Plan. How do you charge people that are not using any of the MTA services a fee when you have people using the MTA services like the 10 bridges that go into Manhattan from Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx and those bridges are free? This makes no sense and it will have disastrous results on everyone that works, lives or owns a business in this zone. Put a minor toll on those bridges and that will raise a hell of a lot more money than Congestion Pricing ever would and it would at least make sense and be justified. And if that doesn’t do it then raise the bus and subway fare.
I said this to Andy Byford several years ago and I say this to Janno Lieber now, you should not feel bad about raising the bus and subway fare because for $2.90 you can travel from the city line of Little Neck Queens to Lower Manhattan and the same people that complain about the fare being $2.90 walk into Starbucks on a daily basis and spend $7.00 on a coffee.
Furthermore, this stupid idea of just putting an automated toll collector on a street to generate revenue will catch on and soon you’ll see tolls on Hyland Blvd, Flatbush Ave, Queens Blvd, the Grand Concourse and your suburban Long Island or Upstate street as well. Bad ideas like this need to be ran through the shredder and then burned.
Philip Valenti
President
