NEW YORK, NY (April 24, 2007) – The Citywide Coalition for Traffic Relief today issued a new report, Debunking the Attack on Congestion Pricing, exposing the flawed study underlying the anti-congestion pricing arguments that are being marshaled by the American Automobile Association, parking garage owners, the Queens Chamber of commerce and a handful of Brooklyn and Queens elected officials.

"The Queens Chamber of Commerce study—and that is using the word ‘study’ very loosely-- is nine ways wrong in asserting that the costs of congestion pricing outweigh the environmental, transit and health benefits,” says Transportation Alternatives Executive Director Paul Steely White.

Debunking the Attack on Congestion Pricing outlines nine ways that the Chamber’s report gets it wrong, from its unfounded assumption about the number of drivers that will stay out of Manhattan instead of switching to transit, to the outright misrepresentation of the number of the total commuters who currently drive to Manhattan.

"Congestion pricing in New York would do what it has done for London and Stockholm: reduce traffic congestion, fund badly-needed transit improvements, result in cleaner air and improve public health," said Gene Russianoff, senior attorney for NYPIRG's Straphangers Campaign. "Opponents have to answer a tough question: What's their program to lower congestion and pay for billions in transit improvements for New York?"

"Congestion pricing critics are simply advocates for the status quo. Where are their plans for improving travel times for the vast majority of New Yorkers who use mass transit?" said Jon Orcutt, executive director of Tri-State Transportation Campaign.

"The reality is that in Jackson Heights, like in scores of neighborhoods around the city, residents are suffering every day. Congestion contributes to the polluted air we must breathe and the dirty streets with dangerous intersections we must walk, "says Will Sweeney, Western Jackson Heights Alliance & member of the Citywide Coalition for Traffic Relief.

The Citywide Coalition for Traffic Relief has 140 member groups (over 50% from Brooklyn and Queens) and is steered by Transportation Alternatives, NYPIRG’s Straphangers Campaign, Tri-state Transportation Campaign and Citizen’s Committee for New York City. trafficrelief.org