PEDESTRIAN TOLLS THE SOLUTION FOR NEW YORK CITY'S CONGESTION
Robert Hight, the chairman of the national Committee for Pedestrian Tolls, has responded to the news that the New York State legislature rebuffed New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg's plan to impose a toll on motor vehicles traveling below 60th St. in Manhattan to relieve congestion.
“Time and time again, the motoring public is taxed to provide funds for government programs. In so doing, our politicians continue to overlook a group of people who cause every bit as much damage to our infrastructure as drivers: pedestrians,”
“Even a cursory glance at the pedestway (pedestrian walkway) in the central business districts of America's major cities will find potholes and cracks the equal of any on our highways. This damage to our infrastructure which represents a real hazard to the walking public goes ignored at our peril,” Hight continued.
“Why should pedestrians get a free ride, so to speak, while drivers bear the entire burden of paying to use our roadways?” asks Hight.
The Committee for Pedestrian Tolls, founded in 1981, advocates a simple solution to this problem: pedestrian toll booths on sidewalks in the central business districts of America's largest cities. In Manhattan, for example, this would mean the area bounded by 14th and 59th Streets., 3rd and 8th Avenues (inclusive). Pedestrians would pay 5 cents per block walked within this area via toll booths set up on the sidewalks, mid-block. Pedestrian toll booths would be manned between 6 AM and midnight.
The Pedestrian Toll Booth System would:
*Provide much-needed money for the repair and maintenance of America's pedestway
*Put the penny back into circulation
*Provide additional security for the protection of the public (toll takers would be armed and have the same power of arrest as police officers)
*Reduce the presence of criminals and homeless people on the sidewalks
Hight calls upon Mayor Bloomberg to act like a true leader by making New York the first American city to institute the Pedestrian Toll System. Chairman Hight offers his services as a Pedestrian Toll Consultant free of charge to New York or any other large American city which will pledge to install toll booths on the sidewalks in its central business district.
City leaders and members of the media may contact Chairman Hight:
Committee for Pedestrian Tolls
P.O. Box 686
Pacific City, OR 97135
818-369-3732
tollbooths@gmail.com
