Creeping, Crawling Congestion Pricing

It looks like congestion pricing is creeping slowly closer toward becoming a reality. I wish, however, that Mayor Bloomberg and his staff would reconsider other ways to reduce congestion on Manhattan's roads.

The traffic congestion problem is not solely a transportation problem, even though it might manifest itself that way. This is a big-picture, city-planning problem, a neighborhood development problem. We could free Manhattan from the congestion stranglehold if we disincentivized what have become routinely long trips from one end of the city, or in some instances the region, to the other. By "disincentivize" , I mean to bring closer to people's homes the destinations pulling them so far away. This would mean more evenly distributing a diverse mix of jobs across the city and region, spurring job growth into secondary downtowns in the outer boroughs, neighborhood centers such as the intersection of Flatbush and Church Avenues in Brooklyn, and edge city business districts in the suburbs. With four years experience working in the child care industry, I've seen the sacrifices parents make to place their young children in quality - and unfortunately costly - day care centers. The issue again comes down to fair distribution: the city should locate a greater number of well-staffed, affordable day care programs more evenly throughout the city, so parents could walk their children to the center and continue hopefully by foot or pedal to a nearby place of employment.

Yes, the streets are crowded. And yes, the subways are in a poor state of repair and nearly packed to the gills themselves. But moving commuters from their cars on to public transit only shifts the problem. It does not solve it. The reason we have such intense congestion in Manhattan goes beyond the transportation network of roads and rail. It is time to think hollistically about this problem and reconsider all the contributors to congestion in our city.