Congestion tax? What next?
 

When big city mayors, business leaders, and environmentalists gathered recently in New York City to discuss climate change, at the heart of their talks was the effects of carbon emissions on the environment. Paige Kollock reports on what cities plan to do about it.

The mayors stood under the blazing sun in Central Park and vowed to take a stand, to make their cities greener, with or without the help of their national governments.

?We are united in the determination to meet the challenge of climate change,? said New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.


Throughout the four-day summit, the mayors discussed ways in which to reduce the amount greenhouse gases, the so-called carbon footprint of their cities. One measure that several cities are considering to reduce carbon emissions is traffic pricing. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg recently proposed a so-called ?congestion tax? on cars entering Manhattan during business hours.

London already has a similar tax. Since 2003, British drivers have had to pay the equivalent of about $16 to enter downtown London.

Ken Livingstone is the mayor of London. He wants to expand the program to the outer boroughs because it has worked so well in the city's center.

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http://www.voanews.com/english/2007-06-07-voa28.cfm

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This just might help us become more environmentally friendly because with more and more of these types of taxes, everyone will have to live on the streets and woods and amongst the animals in nature...I guess...

In sydney, if you enter from the north shore - there's a toll (tax) to get into the city.

They have it in London - it's like $5 a day (or pounds - I was so confused after just a few minutes with the whole USD/Euro/Pound exchanges....).

Doh - see how confused I am STILL??!! I didn't realize it had already mentioned London. I really need to start taking naps.

The first sign of old age is the memory going, and um, I can't remember what the second one is...
hey you kids! get off my lawn!

;-)

How biased is that? It was a whole 75 degrees today and has been unseasonable COLD. Fear the weather god, we need to throw money at it and it will be ok. Wait for the higher gas taxes because humans actually think they can control weather haha

yeah, if they want to truly be punished by blazing het, they should be in Las Vegas in the next couple weeks when it hits 110 degrees...

It's great! More money going no where!:321GFY

instead of whining, do something about it .. Ron Paul 2008

Same old bullshit. More money to the local/state cauffers with no real hope of changing shit.

If they TRUELY wanted to change shit. How about they mandate EVERY government vehicle, state, federal, township, be a hybrid.

Buses, police cars, fire trucks, etc.

Do you know how many fucking cars the government has in their fleets? How about making all military vehicles run on alternate fuels.

If you want REAL change, stop fucking around with it.

:angrysoap:angrysoap:angrysoap

I don't really see that big a problem with it... It's user pays. It's not as if we couldn't do without 2 mile traffic jams. I'd happily pay an extra $5 if I could drive around the city at more than 5 mph because half the cars were off the road... if it helps pollution as well then good-o.

Bloomberg plans on changing all the NYC cabs to natural gas. Plus they have one of the best, if not THE best rapid transit systems in the US. IMO, he's really actually trying to do something about the problem. Here in ATL, we just build more roads when traffic gets worse. Right now the lanes on the interstates are so narrow it's like playing bumper cars. :disgust