March - April 2007

“Gridlock” Sam Schwartz speaks at 5BBC General Meeting

On Mon. Feb. 26, Sam Schwartz gave an interesting talk, “I Hate Traffic” at the 5BBC general meeting.

Mr. Schwartz (pictured at left), was a NYC first deputy transportation commissioner for nearly 3 decades, emphasized the need to improve traffic conditions by congestion pricing, which has been successfuly done in London, England.

This is a concept in which motor vehicles, esp. large trucks driving to certain bridges and roads, notably in Manhattan, be charged a toll.

Rates depend on specific times of the week, esp morning weekday rush hours. He proposed tolling the currently free East River bridges (Brooklyn, Manhattan, Williamsburg and Queensborough) to traffic. And have previously tolled Outer borough bridges (Verrazano, Throgs Neck, Henry Hudson, etc.) free.

A possible positive quality of life result would be less busy and crowded streets, less accidents involving vehicles and pedestrians plus cyclists safely riding the streets.

Read his NY Daily News columns and visit www.gridlocksam.com.