ALLEVIATING TRAFFIC IN NYC's CENTRAL BUSINESS DISTRICT:
CONGESTION PRICING PLUS FREE BUSES

By Theodore W. Kheel

New Yorkers are drowning in a sea of cars and trucks with many civic leaders and organizations striving to find solutions.

A report by the Partnership for New York City recently described the devastating effects of traffic congestion on New York City, and estimated that the costs of that congestion were at least $13 billion a year.

I have been involved in New York transit matters since 1946, when I was appointed by Mayor O-Dwyer as a member of a five-person board to resolve the first post-war transit labor dispute. I have written about New York transit problems, and was responsible for doubling the Port Authority's bridge and tunnel fares in 1958. I became the impartial arbitrator of labor disputes for the New York Transit Authority and for the Manhattan & the Bronx Surface Transit Operating Authority (MABSTOA) in 1949 and continue to serve as arbitrator for several MTA bus lines. And I am among those searching for solutions.

At present there is significant interest in addressing the problem through Congestion Pricing. This practice seeks to begin discouraging the use of cars by imposing a charge on the owners of vehicles driven into the city's major central business district between 59th Street in Manhattan to the Battery. Other central business districts might be included at a later date.

Congestion pricing is a partial solution to congestion, but by itself, it is a half-baked, unless coupled with measures that present options to those who are willing to stop driving in congested districts.

What are the options available to those who seek an alternative, and how viable are they?

Walking and bicycling are options, but for most people, these are not practical. Rather, the principal alternative to car use is public transportation. But mass transit in New York is costly, and destined to become more so under the antiquated doctrine of the "self sustaining fare" adopted in 1958 by Governor Dewey.

There is an easy and obvious way to make public transit more attractive as an option-to make it a free municipal service such as police and fire protection, public grade and high school education and garbage and trash collection. But even though the savings to the public would be massive, the costs of implementing a completely free subway system would be so massive as to be politically unfeasible. Besides, it is impractical to make subways free for only part of the city.

The realistic goal is to make buses in the central business district free. It would provide enormous and immediate benefits. History has shown us that mass transit ridership is sensitive to price. Many years ago, I pointed this out, in an article entitled The Self-Sustaining Fare Is Self-Defeating, where I argued that use of mass transit goes down as the fare goes up and riders switch to cars. That is as true today as it was then, as we recently saw in New York when fare discounts and passes were implemented between 1997 to 1999 and ridership soared. Free bus service is not a novel idea. It has been adopted in a number of cities and towns across the country. A private company providing ferry service between New Jersey and Manhattan found that free bus service within New York City's central business district was such a great attraction that the company implemented such a service to attract customers to the ferries.

The only conceivable argument that can be raised against free bus service is that someone will have to pay for the service, if the rider doesn't. However, implementing congestion pricing together with free bus service solves the problem of financing. The fees collected by the city from those who continue to drive in the city after the policy is adopted can simply be applied to subsidize the free bus system.

Congestion pricing plus free bus service is also fairer than congestion pricing alone to those who cannot abandon their vehicles, such as truckers. Under a congestion pricing policy, truckers are required to pay a charge like others, even though they have to drive into the city, as they cannot deliver their goods any other way. If the charges collected from them and others are, however, applied to subsidize free buses, the congestion in the city will decrease, and the deliveries be more efficient and less costly. So the funds these drivers pay will, at least, be applied to their ultimate benefit.

Implementation of a free bus service in the central business district will require cooperation of many parties, and a reexamination of the laws governing our mass transit system, which is controlled by the governor and requires a self-sustaining fare. The time to begin that reexamination is now.