U.S. Will Fund Plan to Charge Tolls In New York

Transportation Secretary Mary Peters is scheduled to announce today that the federal government will fund New York's pilot plan to reduce traffic by charging tolls to drivers entering the busiest part of Manhattan, congressional aides said last night.

The congestion-pricing system proposed by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg (I) would be the first of its kind in the nation. London and Singapore have similar toll programs.

The dollar value of the federal aid for New York was still unclear, but officials hoped for as much as $537 million from Washington.

The Transportation Department has been considering which five out of nine cities will receive a major infusion of cash for local traffic reduction plans, and agency officials notified congressional staffs last night that New York had qualified for the Urban Partner program, which paves the way for grant money, according to aides who spoke on the condition of anonymity ahead of the announcement.

The grant would settle a long-standing squabble among New York officials about Bloomberg's plan, which would charge cars $8 and trucks $21 to enter Manhattan south of 86th Street on weekdays between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m.

It aims to ease the crunch of worsening rush hour traffic and improve the city's air quality by reducing emissions. Opponents argue that tolls amount to a tax on New York workers who live outside Manhattan and will not affect driver behavior enough to improve air quality or overall traffic patterns.

The other cities competing for federal aid are Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Miami, Minneapolis, San Diego, San Francisco and Seattle.