Dear Legislator,
I am writing to thank you for creating the Traffic Congestion Mitigation Commission last summer. I urge you to adopt the congestion pricing plan that the commission is recommending after months of study, community hearings and deliberation. New York City needs this congestion pricing plan in order to improve commutes today and make the city ready for the expected one million new residents moving here in the next 25 years.
This is a plan that:
* Achieves real traffic reductions - reductions at least as great as the Mayor's initial congestion pricing proposal
* Raises $474 million per year to improve the public transit system most New Yorkers, especially lower income New Yorkers, depend on
* Wins majority support from voters in all five boroughs as a means to fund transit
(Quinnipiac poll: www.quinnipiac.edu/x1302.xml?ReleaseID=1132)
* Cuts commute times by improving bus and subway service and unclogging roads
* Qualifies the city for hundreds of millions in federal funding
* Reduces air pollution
* Treats city residents across all neighborhoods and of all economic levels fairly
* Puts New York on the path to leadership in the fight against global warming
In order to make New York City ready for the challenges ahead, please enact the commission's congestion pricing proposal.
Thank you,
[Your name]