Green Daily

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's dream of decreasing New York City traffic and increasing public transit funding by charging drivers entering Manhattan a fee appears to be dead.

After months of lobbying from Bloomberg, New York City Council members approved a plan last week that would have charged drivers entering Manhattan $8 between 6:00 in the morning and 6:00 in the evening. But this afternoon state lawmakers rejected the proposal. Today's development effectively kills the proposal, since New York City will miss the deadline to qualify for $354 in federal funds for traffic aid.

There's a slight chance that some action could be taken on the measure this evening if Governor David Paterson has his way. The governor supports congestion pricing and has reportedly called leaders of the state legislature into a meeting. But Assembly speaker Sheldon Silver said there's simply not enough support in the state legislature for the measure to pass.

This comes as a pretty major blow to the concept of congestion pricing. New York was the first major US city to consider charging a fee to drive into the city, something which London has been doing for several years now.