Release Date June 8, 2007

Press Release Contact Noah Budnick 1 646-873-6022

Transportation Alternatives applauds the New York State Assembly for holding a hearing on the PlaNYC 2030 initiative today. The transportation component of PlaNYC 2030 provides for critical improvements to bus service, subways, bicycle lanes, commuter rail and the pedestrian environment.

These improvements are needed today and will be even more needed in the coming years to ensure our transportation network is robust enough to meet the demands of the city and region's growth. New York City is expected to grow by one million new residents by 2030, and the initiatives outlined in PlaNYC ensure that public health, environmental health, economic health and our quality of life will not suffer as a result of our growth.

Most importantly, PlaNYC 2030 provides a critical funding for transit expansion in the form of congestion pricing. Transportation Alternatives supports the use of congestion pricing not only as a tool to finance transportation improvements, but as a means to reduce unnecessary traffic, improve air quality and boost the efficiency of city streets.

New Yorkers already pay a congestion charge. Today, it is a tax levied by gridlock that takes time, health and productivity away from everyone who lives, works and visits or passes through this great city.

• The City's three million bus riders endure the slowest buses in the nation;
• One in four children in central Harlem has asthma;
• New York has the second dirtiest air (after L.A.) of any large city in the United States;
• Millions have a dismal quality of life caused by too much traffic on their neighborhood streets;
• And, everyone who drives for a living--from cabbies to plumbers--pays part of the $13 billion in lost productivity due to traffic congestion.

Transportation Alternatives enthusiastically encourages the State Assembly to give PlaNYC 2030's transportation package its full and fair consideration.

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