Meeting Spurs Road Pricing Discussion

"Cautious but interested" was the reaction of leading NYC environmental justice activists to Tri-State Transportation Campaign board member Charles Komanoff's discussion of road pricing at the annual meeting of the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance (NYCEJA) on Oct. 29.

Citing federal data showing that the richest 1/3 of NYC households drive 5 times as much as the poorest 2/3, Komanoff urged the several dozen attending NYCEJA members to support road pricing as a progressive tool to reduce harmful traffic and generate revenues to finance transit investments

and social services. El Puente founder-director Luis Garden-Acosta expressed interest in weight-distance taxes, noting that "We literally cannot cross the street" against Williamsburg's heavy truck traffic. NYPIRG's environmental justice advocate Lu Blaine and Mathy Stanislaus of Minority

Environmental Lawyers Association insisted that any road pricing revenues not be dumped into the general fund but be earmarked to mass transportation (Blaine) and to compensate communities bearing the burden of traffic (Stanislaus). Komanoff pledged to consult with the NYCEJA

transportation committee in formulating Campaign road pricing proposals.