Check out:
A kick-ass chart by Elizabeth on the participation of mothers in the work force over time.
Sorry it's not on-line, but if you get a subscription to the New Yorker, there's a lovely personal history of a guy with Asperger's. In it, he points out a website, Aspies for Freedom, that promotes neuro-diversity and the autistic culture. They say that autism is not a disability, instead it is a super ability.
We've talked about Lexus lanes before on this blog. Now they're coming to New York City. Bloomberg is instituting a "congestion pricing plan." Cars and trucks entering lower Manhattan during rush hour will be charged $8. Setting up this system with all its cameras and billing systems will cost $536 million. Wouldn't that money be better spent on mass transportation to make riding into the city more attractive?
Apt. 11d 
London uses its congestion charge both to reduce congestion and to raise money for better public transport. It’s certainly succeeded on the former. don’t know if it’s actually raised money or not, but a simultaneous, concerted push to improve buses in particular has made a very positive difference. So there’s been stick (charge) and carrot (better transport). It’s worked a treat – even lots of conservatives (who hate London’s mayor) now support it, or at least are afraid to publicly bash it.
London is very much a bus town. The tube is essential, but here it is very normal for the middle classes to commute (within London) by bus. My impression is that most New Yorkers don’t ride buses – is that correct? Perhaps reduced congestion could make NYC’s buses more popular? Or would that be too big a leap for New Yorkers?
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Oh no, New Yorkers ride buses. I used to take the M98 to Hunter all the time. The buses are often standing room only. However, more people do take the subways, because there are more seats on subways, and the subways go faster than the buses.
The car riders in Manhattan aren’t city folks. They are suburbanites who are commuting in from Long Island and New Jersey – aka. bridge and tunnel people. There needs to be increased regional mass transportation. Of course, political solutions that cross state lines are super tricky.
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Wouldn’t that money be better spent on mass transportation to make riding into the city more attractive?
That’s exactly what congestion pricing will do. A lot of the original layout will be federal money that they aren’t going to give the city for improving mass transit on its own.
For anyone confused about what this congestion pricing business is all about, please read this Transportation Alternatives press release and the study it references.
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Thanks, but the chart isn’t mine — just the analysis.
I tend to think congestion pricing is a good idea, although I haven’t heard much about how it will be enforced.
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I have to read the report that ianqui mentioned. (thanks.) But my suspicion is that the people who are driving into the city during rush hour aren’t rich suburbanites, but working class guys who can’t afford to live in towns, like ours, with good public transportation in the city. Those commuters are the cops and school teachers who have to live two or three counties away from Manhattan, because they afford housing in the nearer suburbs. I’ll have to read that report, but my guess is that the money is not going to go to regional mass transportation, which would help out those cops and teachers and stop them from driving into the city. But Bloomberg doesn’t care, because the cops and teachers don’t vote in the city.
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Laura, looks like you’re about half right.
From a Jan. 12 NYT article: “Census data show that more city residents than suburbanites drive to work in Manhattan every day, according to Mr. Schaller. He estimated that 263,000 people in 19 counties in and around New York City drive regularly to jobs in Manhattan below 60th Street. Of those, 53 percent, or 141,000, live in the five boroughs, Mr. Schaller said. The greatest numbers are from Queens, with 51,300, and Brooklyn, with 33,400. About 23,900 auto commuters live in Manhattan, while 17,400 are from the Bronx and 15,200 from Staten Island. The suburban area with the most auto commuters to Manhattan is Nassau County, with 22,091 people driving to work in the borough, followed by Bergen County, with 19,975.
When plotted on a map, the data make a striking picture, showing that some of the densest concentrations of auto commuters are from the outer fringes of Queens and Brooklyn, where access to subways is limited.”
I went poking around because your portrait of Long Island-living cops who want to live in the city didn’t ring true (BIL and uncle are NYPD and would never live in the city, and not because of money).
Here’s the Times Select URL.
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According the press release that ianqui sent me, “The supermajority of New Yorkers—especially middle and low income New Yorkers—are transit riders.” However, that doesn’t mean that most of the car drivers into Manhattan are rich. I think that most of car drivers are actually working class. I assumed that they were working-class upstate New Yorkers, but I guess they’re working stiffs from the outer regions of Queens and Brooklyn. Unless they use every cent of that money to increase bus and subway lines in Bay Village and the Far Rockaways, I still think that this is a bad plan.
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Laura:
what would be better? than congestion pricing as a means of raising money for increased public transport?
I’ve never understood when folks complained about putting additional price incentives transportation choices (as compared, to, say putting price incentives on education/health care, where I see the arguments). But, perhaps that’s ’cause I don’t know the right groups of people.
But, people who complain about congestion pricing for commuting seem to argue that that’s the one choice for which we shouldn’t charge fair market value. We charge (kind of) fair market value for rent. Right, now, it seems that part of the commuting choices of the subgroups you describe are being driven by the fact that fair market is charged for one choice (living closer to where you work) v another (living far away and commuting in).
Historically we couldn’t figure out how to charge people for driving, but I, personally, hope that’s the trend of the future. I’m hoping for meters in every car that tells folks how much they are paying for every mile (and bases the fee on how crowded the roads are).
bj
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The whole point is that we need incentive to build better mass transit, and with the new regime at the DOT, I really do believe that’s in the works. If there’s revenue from congestion pricing, there will be better express and BRT (bus rapid transit) routes in the Bronx and Queens.
Look, the congestion pricing project is A PILOT right now. Give it a chance for that duration. If it doesn’t work—if you’re right, that is—then it will probably be scuttled. But if significant strides are made toward reducing traffic and improving mass transit, then we’ve made a big victory.
We need to put this infrastructure in place now, anyway. If peak oil theorists are right (or even less apocalyptic folks who are nevertheless predicting $100/barrel oil), then people are going to have to figure out how to get out of their cars anyway.
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I think a better incentive for people to use mass transportation, instead of a car, is to actually install mass transportation. The only reason that the guy from Far Rockaway is driving into New York is because he has no alternatives. He would much rather sit on an express subway rather than sweating it out in traffic.
If the guy in Far Rockaway was some wealthy investment banker, then I wouldn’t mind charging him $8 a ride, but he isn’t. He’s a cop or a fireman or a teacher. The rich are able to live on W 57th St. and take a cab to work. How would I fund increased mass transportation to the outer boroughs? Tax the rich guy on W 57th St.
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How exactly would you tax the rich guy on W 57th street? higher income taxes? higher property taxes for 57th street?
I think we came up with a bad system in this country, where people decided that the roads were “free.” We need to fix that mis-impression (in addition to raising money for transit). And yes, when you charge for a service, it’s easier for the rich to buy it than the poor. So I see that there will be an impact.
But, I see the solution to that concern as continuing with congestion pricing and decreasing taxes on your hypothetical cop/fireman (or raising their salaries, since they’re paid from the same taxpayer pie) and increasing taxes on the investment banker (I wish there was some way to decrease their salaries, but taxes seem to be the only way).
bj
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