Letters to the editor

Volume 1, Number 34 | The Weekly Newspaper of Chelsea | May 11 - 17, 2007

Letters to the editor

Parking permits = traffic

To The Editor:
Re “Congestion pricing: A breath of fresh air,” (editorial, April 27):

While the mayor’s sudden interest in greening the city by reducing traffic through congestion pricing is commendable (“Congestion pricing: A breath of fresh air,” editorial, April 25), I believe this is another example of the proverbial attempt to kill a fly with a cannon. Ultimately, congestion pricing amounts to a tax, which will be an onerous burden on those who can least afford it.

The mayor could easily solve traffic congestion tomorrow with zero cost to the general public. Just yank all the free parking permits that government employees use to park their commuter vehicles, and watch the traffic decline. The Schaller study, commissioned by Transportation Alternatives, clearly demonstrates that government workers commute by car at a much higher rate than employees of private firms.

Candidate Bloomberg, campaigning for his first term, had promised to move government offices out of Manhattan — a campaign pledge that henever fulfilled. That is indeed unfortunate, as our Lower Manhattan neighborhoods are saturated with commuter vehicles parked at fire hydrants,bus stops, curb cuts, crosswalks, on top of sidewalks and even in the bushes, all displaying placards stating the vehicle is “on official city business.”

Likewise, if the mayor was really concerned with solving Lower Manhattan’s traffic congestion and air pollution, he would come out in support of changing the one-way toll system on the Verrazano Bridge back to two-way tolls, as proposed by Congressmember Nadler. Currently, trucks can save as much as $70 by diverting through Manhattan and skirting the Verrazano toll on their way into New Jersey.

John Ost

Big Brother is listening

To The Editor:
As I sit on my terrace, being perodically deafened by one passing vehicle after another, I came up with a potential solution for the blasting car music and roaring motorcycles. There are pole-mounted camera devices posted at several city intersections. If a vehicle is in the intersection and the light is red, a photo is taken and a fine mailed to the car’s registered owner.

Why don’t we mount several microphones in the intersection, as well? That way, we can triangulate the position of the noisy vehicle as it passes through the intersection, and then it can be photographed. This way, an image and recording of the perpetrator could be saved and even be available on the Net.

It would be a financial boost for the city, and hopefully entice the owners of noisy automobiles or motorcycles to behave, while not risking officers’ lives or taking them away from more pressing responsibilities.

Gregory Gomez