Traffic in New York City

Just a year earlier, on Earth Day, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg first proposed the congestion pricing plan as a way to both reduce traffic in Manhattan’s streets and increase funds for mass transit throughout the City’s five boroughs.

Congestion Pricing

Congestion pricing, in design, puts an added fee on driving in a designated zone within a city, most often in overcrowded and car-filled areas. It is a tax on driving – to discourage driving and, at the same time, fund alternatives to driving. As a result, the ‘tax’ can be taken two ways:

• Due to car emissions, driving both adversely affects the environment and the health of communities. Consequently, it should be taxed similar to increased taxes on tobacco and liquor – people will drive less and mass transit will have better investment.
• Driving may be harmful, but it is still not a vice like tobacco or liquor. Rather, driving is a need and a right. The cost is already high, and it is taxed enough. And, simply, the alternatives to driving are not yet an adequate substitute.

  Congestion Pricing in London

Some major cities around the world, including Singapore, London and Stockholm, have been able to remedy this divide and implement congestion pricing plans. Still, though cities in America have proposed it, nowhere in the country has congestion pricing been realized. Since its failure in New York, San Francisco is now considering a similar plan.

New York City

As a part of the PlaNYC initiative put forward by Mayor Bloomberg to make New York a greener city as it continues to develop over the next few decades, the initial congestion pricing plan announced in April 2007 proposed an $8 fee to passenger vehicles entering Manhattan below 86th Street between 6 am and 6 pm on weekdays, and $4 for trips within that zone. By implementing congestion pricing, $354 million in grants through the federal Urban Partnership Agreement would have been allocated to the City for mass transit improvements.

Also referred to as the Central Business District, the part of Manhattan below 86th Street on a given day has some 2 million workers from around the region, hundreds of thousands of tourists, and several hundred thousand residents. With these people come cars. And, if it had been implemented, traffic within the congestion pricing zone was projected to decrease 6.3 percent and speeds were projected to increase 7.2 percent.

Still, in January of the following year, changes were made to the Mayor’s proposal – namely, reducing the congestion pricing zone to below 60th Street instead of 86th.

The opposition to the plan came mainly from the outer boroughs and the surrounding suburbs – where the drivers lived. But, that opposition was minimal. According to a March 2008 Quinnipiac poll, the overall public support for congestion pricing in the City, if the proceeds were used to improve mass transit, was 60 percent to 30 percent statewide. New York City voters supported the plan, if the money was used for mass transit, 67 percent to 27 percent, while suburban voters supported it 51 percent to 43 percent.
Despite the city and statewide public support, the New York City Council, which votes unanimously on most issues, voted only 30 to 20 in support of the plan on March 31, 2008.

The deadline to apply for the federal Urban Partnership Agreement funds – $354 million for mass transit – was on April 7th. In the end, no vote was made by the New York State legislature. Mayor Bloomberg’s plan to implement congestion pricing failed as time ran out. The winners: Politicians from Queens, Brooklyn and New York’s suburbs, who maintained that congestion pricing was a fee on commuters to the benefit of well-to-do Manhattanites.

Specifically, New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, representing the Lower East Side of Manhattan, opposed the plan arguing motorists would avoid congestion pricing fees by parking in neighborhoods just outside the zone. As a result, neighborhoods would become “parking lots.” Also, Assemblyman Richard Brodsky of Westchester County issued a report on the proposal, calling it a “regressive tax” on the poor and middle class of the region.

Still, though New York City lost federal funds for its transportation system as a result of the plan’s defeat, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood recently made it clear that the funds are still available if the city is ever able to implement congestion pricing in the near future.

The Singapore Example

Singapore was the first country in the world to implement Electronic Road Pricing (called congestion pricing in the U.S.).

The following is a Worldfocus-Blueprint America report on Singapore’s successes in alleviating congestion, while, at the same time, the automatic fees take a toll on Singapore’s commuters.

Worldfocus producers Mary Lockhart and Ara Ayer, and correspondent Daljit Dhaliwal report; this segment was part of a series on infrastructure produced by Worldfocus.

This didn’t solve the problem of existing waste however, and in July the Peruvian government issued a state of emergency in the area, ordering the company to relocate the processing plant and tailing ponds. Gold Hawk now says the new facilities are ready for business, but is still waiting for a permit from the government before it can proceed. Storm clouds rumble in over the Andes and while the fate of the mine hangs in the balance, both shareholders and citizens of Lima are nervous about the outcome.

A variation on a theme, this scenario has been playing out from Congo to the Philippines: mining operations from the developed world move into ore-rich, but impoverished areas of developing countries. The issue is never as cut-and-dry as many environmentalists or corporate quarterly reports would have it seem. According to the UNDP, over half of Peru’s population lives under the national poverty line. When an international mining company sets up shop in such an area, they know they’re sure to be monitored by watchdog groups and accordingly draw up community relations plans. Promises of medical centers and literacy programs, as well as steady wages are no doubt attractive to residents whose local infrastructure may be lacking.

But when approving large-scale mining projects, nations must weigh jobs and community benefits against the potentially far-reaching costs of clean-up, should an environmental disaster occur. In 2000, a contractor working for Newmont Mining Corporation accidentally spilled 330 pounds of mercury near the small Peruvian town of Choropampa. The company’s resulting multi-million dollar mitigation efforts included health care for villagers who reported symptoms of mercury poisoning. The controversy over that mining operation leaves many Peruvians skeptical of new mining endeavors.

In the film Gold Futures, WIDE ANGLE visits a mining village in Romania where mineral wealth and badly-needed jobs compete with time-honored rural traditions and concerns about poisoning the environment.

Although Brazil is almost the size of the United States, it doesn’t have nearly as many major highways. Apart from areas around São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, most roads labeled as “highways” are actually two-lane roads. Many of them are in poor shape. Adding to Brazil’s highway headaches are the large number of 18-wheelers on the road—in Brazil, most goods are shipped by truck.

But if Brazil’s president has his way, that’s all about to change. Last year, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva announced the most ambitious plan to overhaul the nation’s infrastructure in Brazilian history. Lula’s plan calls for spending over $250 billion on infrastructure projects by the year 2010 — $17 billion of that will go toward fixing roads.

Lula’s plan couldn’t come at a more crucial time. Along with China and India, Brazil is one of the world’s hottest economies. Much of its newfound wealth is the result of exporting commodities like iron ore, coffee and soybeans. In turn, a newly prosperous middle class is hungry for imports of consumer goods. Timely shipments are essential to keeping the wheels of commerce turning.

Ask an American what comes to mind when they hear the words “road trip,” and they are likely to mention things like “adventure” and “freedom.”  Mention those words to a Brazilian, and you’re more likely to hear things like “ordeal” and “frustration.”  Simply put, driving long distances in Brazil can be a trying experience.

Although Brazil is almost the size of the United States, it doesn’t have nearly as many major highways.  Apart from areas around Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, most roads labeled as “highways” are actually two lane roads.  Many of them are in poor shape.  Adding to Brazil’s highway headaches are the large number of 18 wheelers on the road—in Brazil, most goods are shipped by truck.

But if Brazil’s president has his way, that’s all about to change.  Last year, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva announced the most ambitious plan to overhaul the nation’s infrastructure in Brazilian history.  Lula’s plan calls for spending over $250 billion on infrastructure projects by the year 2010.  $17 billion of that will go towards fixing roads.

Lula’s plan couldn’t come at a more crucial time.  Along with China and India, Brazil is one of the world’s hottest economies.  Much of its new found wealth is the result of exporting commodities like iron ore, coffee, and soybeans.  In turn, a newly prosperous middle class is hungry for imports of consumer goods.  Timely shipments are essential to keeping the wheels of commerce turning.  According to Pedro Bastos, an investment officer based in Brazil for the financial services firm HSBC, “We need to invest in highways, rail networks, and airports.  We need to improve our infrastructure to take our harvests to ports or processing centers.  And frankly, we didn’t invest when we needed to.”

I, along with several other members of the Worldfocus team, spent several days traveling Brazil’s highways, talking with motorists and truckers.  Many of them couldn’t agree more.  Typical of their views were those of one trucker who delivers eucalyptus wood from Brazil’s central coast to brick kilns near Rio de Janeiro.  He’s been driving the same shoddy road for 34 years.  He said it was about time the government did something, and told us he’s looking forward to the day his trip goes a little smoother and a little faster.

However, we did meet one trucker who wasn’t buying it.  He said he thought the government was “lying,” saying that officials have a long history of announcing ambitious plans, only for them to result in nothing.  He’ll believe it when he sees it, he said.

One of the roads high on the government’s priority list for improvement is the BR 101. The BR 101 is a two lane road that leads into the important port of Sepetiba, just south of Rio de Janeiro.  As it is, the road has trouble handling all the trucks trying to get into the port.  The sight of trucks lined up idling alongside the road is common.  The 101 is now being widened to four lanes; that work appears to be well along to completion.

Eventually, the government hopes to connect the 101 with another road on the opposite side of Rio de Janeiro, the BR 493.  The 493 is also a narrow two lane, full of bumps and swales, and it too is slated for improvement.  The goal of connecting the 101 and 493?  To eventually form a bypass around Rio de Janeiro, solving another problem, that of trucks have to pass through the city.

Some of the $250 billion dollars Lula wants to spend on Brazil’s infrastructure will come from public coffers.  But the rest is expected to come from private investment.  This effort to enlist private companies has some wondering whether Brazil’s poorer citizens will literally be relegated to the slow lane.

As part of its plan to enlist private companies, the Brazilian government has leased several of its major highways to private companies, making those companies responsible for maintenance and repairs and, in return, allowing them to collect tolls.  Currently, seven stretches of Brazilian highway are in private hands, and that number is expected to grow.

The tolls aren’t cheap.  We took a drive on a highway that has already been privatized, the Rio de Janeiro to Sao Paulo highway.  We paid twenty US dollars for the privilege of driving about 175 miles.  That amounts to the daily take home pay of the average Brazilian.

We also visited a highway that was being repaired in anticipation of being privatized, a highway running north from Rio de Janeiro to the town of Campos.  A road crew was busy repaving the roadway with a soupy mixture of oil and stone, not the dense macadam Americans are used to seeing on their highways.  The crew’s foreman told us once his bosses put their toll booths in place, some of the members of his crew probably wouldn’t be able to afford to drive the very road they were helping to fix.

The debate about turning highways over to private hands mirrors one happening in America.  Here too, some state and local governments are trying to privatize roads.  A recent effort by officials in Pennsylvania to lease the Pennsylvania Turnpike—the first major road ever built in America—to a consortium led by banking giant Citigroup has been met with stiff resistance.

In America at least, many believe the push to privatize flies in the face of the concept of “public works.”  Last year, a poll of Pennsylvania drivers showed the majority opposed to the idea.  Many of them seem to agree with Adam Smith, the man who first articulated the concept of free market capitalism, when he wrote that governments should provide some things to all its citizens, public works like roads being one of them.

Back in Brazil, we asked a contractor in charge of work on the BR 101 near the port of Sepetiba about all this.  He told us that even if the poor can’t afford to pay tolls, they would still benefit.  The poor, he said, don’t even own cars, so for them, the issue of tolls was moot.  However, he said they do take buses and that bus accidents are a big problem in Brazil.  So, he said, anything that makes the roads safer will also help the poor.

After we finished our interview, we hopped into our car and drove off.  About five miles up the road we saw a bus overturned, lying in a ditch on the side of a road.  The passengers had already been evacuated and the bus didn’t appear to be heavily damaged, but it served as an eerie reminder of the contractor’s words.

Singapore

Traffic gridlock is hindering economic productivity and increasing pollution in countries around the globe. Worldfocus producer Mary Lockhart travels to Singapore to see how that country is trying to get commuters out of theirs cars and into rapid transit buses and subways with a traffic congestion pricing scheme.

Brazil

Analysts predict Brazil will have the world’s fourth-largest economy in the world behind China, US and India by 2050. But experts fear Brazil’s underdeveloped infrastructure will hinder its economic development. Only 12 percent of the Brazil’s 1 million miles of roads are paved. Worldfocus producer Bryan Myers travels to Rio De Janeiro to see how the government and private companies are partnering to fix Brazil’s highways. Public-private partnerships are also under consideration in America, where states are looking for ways to fund repairs to their roads.