Q&A: New York Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff
What economic impact are you expecting this to have on the trucking industry, which has voiced its concerns over the $21 charge for trucks?
What it will do is eliminate the driving through communities in order to get to free bridges. That certainly will be eliminated. But the additional cost will be more than made up for in terms of savings in time, less gas used because they've got shorter travel times, less times circling around looking for a place to park.
London and Stockholm already have congestion pricing systems in place. What lessons have you learned from them about selling this plan?
Well, even though it really only affects about 5 percent of the people, we have to be sensitive to that, and the way to be sensitive to that is to make sure that you make many of the mass transit improvements, particularly in the communities that are poorest served by mass transit, before you even switch the system on. That is absolutely essential, and that is something the mayor committed to do as part of this plan.
What are your prospects of approval from the state Legislature?
I think it's too soon to tell, but I think the question that a lot of people are asking is, "If not this, what?" No one who has ever driven in New York City denies that we have a congestion problem; nobody denies that our mass transit system needs significant upgrading; nobody denies that transportation is a major source of our air pollution and therefore our extremely high asthma rate, particularly among children.
Do you think this is an option other cities should be considering?
I think it is a wave of the future, because people recognize the problem and it is a proven system, one that in London and Stockholm was approved over great objections and has proven to be very popular.
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