How can the city reduce congestion on its streets, sidewalks, subways and buses?Of the 10 goals the city set as part of the "PlaNYC" program to manage its expected growth of 1 million people by 2030, this issue has provoked the most e-mails from New Yorkers."It's very clear that steps must be taken now to encourage a shift away from the personal automobile to other modes," outgoing transportation Commissioner Iris Weinshall said yesterday at a City Council hearing on the topic.She talked about "creating a safer space" for pedestrians and cyclists and emphasized the importance of bus rapid transit and expanding ferry service, particularly along the East River, and she'd like to see such service linked to MetroCards.She also mentioned a need for "investing in significant improvements to our subway system."Gene Russianoff, senior attorney for the Straphangers Campaign, pointed out, however, that city funding for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's core capital plan is at a 20-year low. The city's annual $70 million contribution is roughly 3 percent of the MTA's $11 billion 5-year budget."During the Giuliani administration, the city gave $100 million a year," Russianoff said. "In the last term of Mayor Edward Koch, the city gave $200 million a year."Teresa Toro of the Tri-State Transportation Campaign asked what is being done about the subway lines already near or over capacity. Though the mayor's 2030 plan aims to develop more commercial and residential development, she said there's no government agency charged with developing transit with the other growth."As recently as last year, the [DOT] was passing off the problem of overcapacity on Brooklyn's L train as an MTA problem, even though it was city government that had just re-zoned Greenpoint and Williamsburg for 100 percent residential growth, even after the L line had already become a 24/7 mosh pit."Rohit Aggarwala, director of the office spearheading PlaNYC, said there has been "staff level" meetings with the MTA, which didn't attend yesterday's hearing.The city "faces a total transportation investment need of between $35 and $50 billion over the next 25 years," Aggarwala said, but offered no funding solutions or specifics on reducing congestion."We are not making any decision until we finish our outreach effort," Aggarwala said.Pricing planA Transportation Alternatives report released yesterday found 57 percent of city drivers didn't pay for parking either because they had placards, were reimbursed by employers or used free curbside spots. TAs executive director Paul Steely White suggested congestion pricing, saying charging fees for cars to enter Manhattan could help buses operate more efficiently. "In London, congestion pricing sped buses by 9 percent and boosted service by 23 percent," he said.