I’m Feeling Congested Today
I don’t mean to go on a rant here, but…
People Who Have No Right to Complain About Proposed “Congestion Pricing” in Manhattan:
- The douchebag from Long Island who blew $75,000 on a Land Rover but whines about spending $8 a day to drive into Manhattan. He also whines about paying for his kid’s new braces, but generously paid for his wife’s boob job.
- The douchebag from New Jersey who spends $450 a month on a parking space near his office, where he parks after driving for an hour and a half, passing ten NJ Transit stations where a monthly parking permit and monthly train pass would cost half that. Unfortunately, riding the train would give him too much time to think about his crumbling marriage and mundane life in the suburbs.
- The douchebag from Westchester who voluntarily chose to move so far from Manhattan that he spends $800 in gas every month for the 75-mile commute in his Hummer H2, which, along with his big house, compensates for his small penis.
- The douchebag who lives on the Upper East Side and drives to his Wall Street office in his BMW, just a make the simple statement: he is more important than you are.
- The douchebag cop from the Bronx who drives his clunker to his precinct in Manhattan, using $10 in gas and parking illegally on the sidewalk every day just to accentuate his masculinity. After all, taking the subway for $4 round-trip is for pussies.
People Who Have Every Right to Complain About Proposed “Congestion Pricing” in Manhattan:
- Every Manhattan resident, who will get screwed in one of two ways (or both!):
- The new $21 toll that suppliers’ and retailers’ delivery trucks must pay each time they enter the city will be passed to Manhattan consumers in the form of price increases.
- In an effort to avoid the $21 toll, trucks will make all of their deliveries overnight, generating even more noise pollution in off-hours when most New Yorkers are trying to sleep.
This entry was posted on Monday, April 23rd, 2007 at 2:51 pm and is filed under Life in NYC, News. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
April 23rd, 2007 at 3:35 pm
says:There is no way that anyone commuting from Westchester would have to drive 75 miles to the city. You’re thinking about the douchebags from Poughkeepsie…and I know a few.
April 23rd, 2007 at 3:53 pm
says:Meaghan: Round trip he would. Chappaqua to Lower Manhattan is 37 miles each way. Booyah.
April 23rd, 2007 at 6:28 pm
says:Point No. 2 is great. I’m surprised that it hasn’t been raised more vocally elsewhere. The biggest problem with traffic is the constant noise. A post-6 p.m. truck influx won’t help.
So presumably the benefits of this plan will be limited to 1.) minimal reduction in weekday air pollution and 2.) smoother above-ground commutes between 86th St. and downtown. Seeing that I take the subway and spend my days in a ventilated office, the main effect for me could be loud trucks passing my apartment all frickin’ night.
You just converted me from a supporter to a skeptic.
April 23rd, 2007 at 7:00 pm
says:so what do we do? i think getting cars out of manhattan is a worthwhile ambition. while some people seem to be taking issue with congestion pricing in london, overall it has been a great success.
April 23rd, 2007 at 7:06 pm
says:Ok and I thought the toll bridge from the mount to tauranga was bad. That costed commuters $1 each way. The new toll bridge going towards auckland from Hamilton will cost $5 each way…
Ya know…it is always the rich people complaining about the prices of stuff when its the working class who have to foot the bill for every privilage the rich enjoy. Well most things anyway. It irks me that these people who can have these flash cars and big houses cant donate to soup kitchens or shelters for the homeless, something that would do some good around the place.
April 23rd, 2007 at 11:22 pm
says:Crime Notes is right. The concept is good, the actual proposal means more trucks on Manhattan streets at night. The details of the proposal are probably bad enough to kill any prospect of a good congestion pricing plan in the future.
Also, given the examples above, forget congestion charges, when is the city going to start requiring visas?
April 24th, 2007 at 7:41 am
says:I am going to inpose an $8 charge per use of the word “douchebag” to prevent overuse on this blog.
April 24th, 2007 at 9:50 am
says:congested is stuffed sinuses, holding a westie and two bags, and riding the ‘a’ at 5.15 from the canal station up to 181st.
whingers.
April 24th, 2007 at 2:07 pm
says:you really are man for the people
April 24th, 2007 at 2:28 pm
says:Agree with all. Take it a step further. Why not give a break to those of us who drive fuel efficient vechicals, and to those who choose to drive the BIG OVERsized rooms pay more.
April 24th, 2007 at 9:05 pm
says:This isn’t really a personal-injury issue, is it?
I mean, think a reduction in pollution is a pretty worthy benefit, even if I can’t see it idling outside my window.
Speaking of: Just who is going to find it that worthwhile to take deliveries at all hours to save a twenty?
No restaurant or bar will be taking deliveries during service, so they’re out. No stores that keep normal are going to find it economically worthwhile to have staff on “all frickin’ night” just to save on the congestion pricing. FedEx and UPS, as clever as they can be (UPS prohibits left-hand turns to save gas), aren’t going to be promising delivery by 6:01 p.m. dAnd 24-hour places already probably seem to take deliveries late at night when business is slow.
It also seems worth considering that suppliers might even find that they can deliver goods more efficiently without such congested streets.
April 24th, 2007 at 10:02 pm
says:Last month, without the congestion charge, a big UPS truck drove past my window every weeknight, at midnight, like clockwork. It drove slowly and blocked the other vehicles, causing every driver of those vehicles to honk on their horns.
I remember this very well. I haven’t noticed the UPS truck recently so they must have changed their schedule. But the point is yes, UPS is perfectly capable of sending its drivers out onto the streets at midnight.
April 25th, 2007 at 9:19 am
says:London’s been doing this for years and it’s been successful. Granted, the geography of London versus New York, specifically Manhattan, is so wildly different that this solution might not be as effective - but something needs to be done.
April 25th, 2007 at 9:36 am
says:In conclusion, pretty soon no one who’s not totally rich will ever be able to live in NYC. And it will remain unpleasant to be here, but in a more sound-pollutioney, possibly slightly less air-pollutioney way.
April 25th, 2007 at 10:02 am
says:The only person who would drive from Chappaqua to Manhattan is Hillary Clinton.And I seriously doubt sheand her entourage/police escort will ever have to pay tolls.
It’s the Bedford folks you have to worry about. Like the Donald. But then again, he prolly just takes his gold encrusted chopper.
April 25th, 2007 at 10:04 am
says:Please excuse my spacing issues in that last comment. My Mac gets all weird and my cursor gets messed up when I try to leave comments. Not like you care.
April 25th, 2007 at 1:04 pm
says:HD: That’s a decent point. But that was probably not a delivery truck but one of the semis taking parcels to another nearby sorting center for delivery the next day or to the airport for their flight to Louisville. And the congestion charge wouldn’t change that.
Incidentally, as someone whose former bedroom faced a narrow, one-way street that had pretty heavy traffic, I sympathize.