Pay Your Own Damn Way

One post in favor of mass transit deserves one against.

Pravda The New York Times is agitating for a London-style congestion pricing scheme to raise money for the MTA.

Here's a solution. Why not a mixture of cuts to the massive bureaucracy of the MTA and charging riders some semblance of the actual cost to run the system?

Kid Various is all in favor of congestion pricing - as long as that money goes to build new freaking roads!!!

You want to build the LOMEX? Hey, go ahead and fleece The Kid for a congestion surcharge. (Of course, if they built the LOMEX there'd have been significantly less congestion to charge in the first place.)

You want to build Westway? Our wallets are open.

You want to build another desperately needed Hudson River crossing? It's all good.

What The Kid doesn't need is to subsidize subway riders. And Kid Various is a frequent subway user! Because there already is congestion pricing in Manhattan - it's called the daily parking rate, which makes it completely untenable to drive in the City during normal business hours.