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informationpile.com

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Jul 03, 2008 2:50 p.m.

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streetsblog.org
online.wsj.com

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$4 Gasoline, Higher Tolls, and Less Driving

Source: http://www.informationpile.com/wall-street-journal...

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New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s congestion-pricing plan crashed and burned after he failed to get support from the state legislature. But the New York Times notes today that high gas prices — along with increases in tolls by agencies that run the city’s bridges and tunnels — “seem to be doing for traffic in New York what … the ambitious congestion pricing was supposed to do: reducing the number of cars clogging the city’s streets and pushing more people to use mass transit.” The Times reports that in May, traffic at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s bridges and tunnels dropped 4.7% from the same month the previous year. The Times said the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has recorded a similar decline in its bridges and tunnels since early March. The Times also highlights stats on weekday subway ridership (up 6.5% in April from a year earlier) and commuter lines (up 5.5% on the Long Island Rail Road, 4.3% on the Metro-North Railroad, and nearly 9% on the PATH trains that cross the Hudson from New Jersey).

So which had more of an impact, higher tolls or higher gas prices? Streetsblog examines the numbers, and leans in the direction of tolls. “Here’s why: a typical round-trip into the Manhattan CBD uses between 1.3 and 1.4 gallons of gas (based on an average 22.6-mile round-trip distance and a stop-and-start 17 miles per gallon). Nationally, gas cost $3.65 this April-May and $3.05 a year earlier, for a year-to-year increase of 60 cents a gallon or just 80 cents per trip. The toll increase was a good deal higher than this, even accounting for trips into town via the free bridges.”

In May, the Journal cited a study by International Business Machines researchers of 4,091 drivers in 10 U.S. cities, including Atlanta, Los Angeles and New York. With national gasoline prices averaging $3.67 per gallon at the time of the survey, 9% of drivers said they already were seriously considering other commuting options. At $4.50 a gallon, the figure jumps to 46%.

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