2
BROOKLYN WEEKLY, APRIL 7, 2019
2019
* plus tax and season pass.
Offi ce: 718-336-3900 | Fax: 718-336-3990
YOUR HEALTH MEANS
EVERYTHING TO US!
Dr. Nison Badalov | Dr. Ian Wall | Dr. Kayane Hanna-Hindy Dr.
Rabin Rahmani | Dr. Pierre Hindy
Our offi ce offers a full array of gastroenterology services
to help you maintain a healthy digestive system.
Colon Cancer screening, GERD, Irritable Bowel
Syndrome, Peptic Ulcer Dx.
9101 4th Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11209
902 Quentin Rd, #701
Brooklyn, NY 11223
26 Court Street
Brooklyn, NY 11242
What you need
Analysts: City’s congestion pricing will
have little impact on Brooklyn’s drivers
BY JULIANNE MCSHANE
The state Legislature and
Gov. Cuomo passed congestion
pricing on March
31 as part of the state’s $175
billion budget.
Analysts say the move
will only affect between
one and two percent of
the Kings Countians who
drive cars into the distant
isle of Manhattan below
60th Street, but local
cyclists say the scheme
will also transform the
commutes of thousands
of Brooklynites who commute
on two wheels, by reducing
the number of overall
cars on the roadways
and leaving more room
for alternative forms of
transportation.
“Brooklyn drivers will
barely be impacted by congestion
pricing, according
to some recent studies,
and it will greatly improve
the overall streetscape
south of 60th Street to the
benefi t of thousands upon
thousands of Brooklyn cyclists
and pedestrians that
commute into Manhattan
daily,” said Ridgite Dan
Hetteix, a member of the
newly-formed cycling advocacy
group Bike South
Brooklyn .
City data shows that
the amount of cyclists who
ride from the Borough of
Churches into the distant
isle has grown exponentially
within the past decade:
an average of 10,429
cyclists per day rode into
Lower Manhattan over
the Brooklyn and Williamsburg
bridges during
the seven-month period
of April to October 2017
— nearly 40 percent more
than the number of cyclists
who rode over those
bridges during the same
period nine years earlier.
The Big Apple is now
the fi rst city in the nation
to implement congestion
pricing , which will charge
a yet-to-be-determined fee
to drivers entering Manhattan
within the affected
boundary at peak times
LIT: Congestion pricing got the green light on March 31 as the state
Legislature and Gov. Cuomo passed the initiative as part of the
state’s $175 billion budget. Getty Images
beginning in 2021, according
to the governor’s offi ce,
which added that drivers of
passenger vehicles will not
be charged more than once
per day.
The Triborough Bridge
and Tunnel Authority
and a new traffi c mobility
review board will determine
the cost of the toll
and which drivers will receive
exemptions, according
to a report in the New
York Times, which added
that 80 percent of the toll
revenue will be directed
to the subway and bus systems,
while the last 20 percent
will be evenly split between
the Long Island Rail
Road and the Metro-North
Railroad.
Proponents of the decades
old idea have said
the pricing will provide
about $1 billion annually
to the MTA, which the
agency could use to secure
bonds for up to $15 billion
to fund improvements to
the city’s beleaguered subway
system, according to
AM New York . And analysts
say that the tolls will
impact a marginal number
of Brooklynites: a rep for
the independent Regional
Plan Association said on
the Brooklyn Paper Radio
Show last month that the
pricing scheme will impact
only 1.3 percent of Kings
Countians.
And data compiled by
pro-congestion pricing
organization Tri-State
Transportation Campaign
predicted a slightly
higher impact on the Borough
of Churches, estimating
that 2.4 percent of
its commuters will regularly
pay the charge, and
adding that more than 60
percent of its residents
take public transit and
would benefi t from transit
improvements.
Mayor de Blasio agreed
on April 1 that congestion
pricing will help fi x what
he called the “broken subway
system,” and called
the tolls “our best hope at
getting the trains moving
and ending the suffering
our riders face every day.”
Those who oppose the
measure, including Kings
County’s own Assemblywoman
Rodneyse Bichotte
(D–Flatbush), charge that
the pricing amounts to an
unfair burden on the poor.
Other local pols — including
Assemblywoman
Mathylde Frontus (D–Coney
Island) and state Sen.
Andrew Gounardes (D–
Bay Ridge) — signaled
Continued on page 10