Speaking at a press conference on the steps of City Hall with other elected officials and groups opposed to congestion pricing, Sen. Kruger called the controversial plan “a disaster waiting to happen.”
“The MTA has already said it cannot provide proper infrastructure to allow all New Yorkers equal and easy access to our mass transit system,” he said. “Given this fact, the city is persisting with its usual modus operandi of planning in a vacuum – this time with the misguided and dangerous assumption that congestion pricing will serve as a gentle encouragement for people to abandon cars in favor of subways and buses when traveling into Manhattan.”
Instead of “gentle encouragement,” however, Sen. Kruger said congestion pricing will be like “packing 10 pounds of chopped meat into a five-pound bag,” noting that the mass transit system is ill-equipped for the extra riders.
A vocal critic of congestion pricing, Sen. Kruger has called the plan “a disingenuous and bad proposal” that will divert traffic to the outer boroughs, cause a severe financial burden for senior citizens visiting doctors in Manhattan and all residents from neighborhoods that are not easily accessible via mass transit, and will hurt small businesses that cannot afford the added costs.
“This is neither a senior-friendly, family-friendly nor business-friendly proposal,” said Sen. Kruger, who is Chair of the Committee on Social Services, Children and Families, and a member of the Aging Committee.
Sen. Kruger has said that he finds it “ironic” that the area targeted for congestion pricing is the same area targeted for the now defunct West Side Stadium proposal that would have brought tens of thousands of cars into Manhattan.
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