Mary Peters

Michael Bloomberg’s spokesman John Gallagher is releasing, upon request, a statement blasting the legislative process that killed his boss’ plans for congestion pricing.

“What we are witnessing today is one of the biggest cop-outs in New York’s history. After insisting on the formation of a commission to make recommendations for a bill, and then for the City Council to vote to endorse that bill, the Assembly needs to stand up and be counted.  They owe it to the majority of New Yorkers who support this plan, the scores of environmental groups, public health organizations, business leaders, unions, and the public at large, to put this proposal to a public vote.”

Mary Peters, the U.S. Transportation Secretary also released a statement thanking by name everyone but Sheldon Silver for their “leadership” on the issue.

“Thanks to the leadership of Mayor Bloomberg, Governor Paterson, Majority Leader Bruno, the City Council and many other state and local officials and civic, environmental, business and labor organizations, New York has engaged in one of the most vigorous and significant debates about transportation policy in modern U.S. history. While today's announcement, if accurate, is deeply disappointing, New York’s mounting traffic and environmental woes point to congestion pricing as an inevitable solution, even if not in the next few months or with the assistance of federal Urban Partnership dollars. Starting tomorrow, we will engage with many of the largest cities in the United States that have put forward ambitious traffic fighting plans to discuss how they could use this money to cut traffic, improve transit and reduce pollution.”

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After a few months of relative inactivity, Mayor Bloomberg’s congestion pricing-touting road show is back in full force, pressing the topic nonstop, presumably ending with the March 31 deadline (which now seems to have become April 7) to gain approval or jeopardize more than $350 million in federal funds.

This morning the mayor hit up a Crain’s breakfast forum at the Ritz Carlton downtown, appearing with the secretary of the federal Department of Transportation, Mary Peters, to recite the now very familiar arguments for the plan.

From the Ritz, the mayor and Ms. Peters went to hop aboard the Staten Island Ferry (they took SUVs the few blocks to the terminal), after which they were scheduled to demonstrate a signaling system in Staten Island that could be part of a bus rapid transit program should congestion pricing happen.
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