On Monday, April 7, Sheldon Silver walked out of a closed door meeting of State Assembly Democrats and announced congestion pricing was dead. Never mind that New York City's mayor and City Council supported the plan along with the governor, the State Senate and an unprecedented coalition of business, labor, environmental and civic groups. Like so much else in Albany, the decision was made in secret, without a debate, a vote or even a record of the proceedings.

The thought of cycling in New York terrifies me. The streets may be wide, the distances small and the hills nonexistent but the 13,000 yellow cabs--those Ford Crown Victorias with their furious V8 engines--devour the road space as hungrily as they consume fuel. Then there's the combat-ready 4x4s on steroids and the pollution stacking up between the tall buildings. Unlike London, there are no real speed limits--drivers make up the rules as they go along. This is a city that makes even London look bike friendly.

After helping to kill the most promising transit proposal New York has seen in years, Assemblyman Ruben Diaz Jr., son of State Senator Ruben Diaz, had the gall to suggest that Bloomberg's proposed congestion pricing measure was "morally unconscionable." That's right. He described a fee designed to price a scarce resource more intelligently -- and create room to maneuver in Lower and Midtown Manhattan, some of the densest real estate in North America -- in terms usually reserved for the wanton murder of beloved house pets.

New York City commuters had mixed reactions to the dead end congestion pricing faced in Albany Monday, but supporters say they're not giving up on finding congestion solutions just yet. NY1's Lily Jamali filed the following report.

Bryan Daley makes his living selling West Indian food from a truck near City Hall.

"I take the Manhattan Bridge to get over here," says Daley.

With his work day starting around 11 in the morning he would have been hit with congestion pricing fees, if the plan had passed the state Assembly.

With congestion pricing dead (for now), New York City is left with drivers still stuck in traffic and transit riders packed like sardines. How else can we ease traffic jams and provide decent and affordable bus and subway service? Both the state and the city have work to do.

We're putting in some calls and getting some initial reactions to the State Assembly's failure to bring New York City's congestion pricing plan to a vote today.

Michael O'Loughlin at the Campaign for New York's Future said:

Congestion pricing is dead. Long live congestion pricing.

The Assembly still has to come up with a plan to deal with a $17 billion transit deficit in a $29 billion capital plan. As Gene Russianoff at the Straphangers Campaign said, 'That's more hole than plan.'

Lawmakers in Albany rejected a proposal yesterday to charge Manhattan motorists an extra fee to drive in the city, a plan advocates hoped would reduce traffic and curb pollution.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver announced the decision after a survey of Democratic Assembly members in a private conference. The decision means the city will forfeit $354 million in federal funding for trying to kick-start the plan.

Much of the opposition came from outlying areas of both Brooklyn and Queens, areas not readily accessible to the city's mass transit system.

So, congestion pricing--the plan to charge drivers $8 for entering Manhattan during peak hours--is dead. Back in the summer of 2007, here's what two Indypendent writers had to say about Mayor Mike's plan.

Arun Gupta wrote: "Now, some sort of levy on rush-hour traffic should be implemented, but Bloomberg's proposal is full of bad ideas.

Mayor Bloomberg's congestion pricing plan has flat-lined, but transportation advocacy groups said that dealing with congestion and traffic remains imperative at the city level.

The Straphangers Campaign said they are "sorely disappointed" the plan to charge drivers below 60th Street an $8 fee during peak traffic hours will not be adopted, but said they are "looking forward to working with state and local officials to secure the dollars needed to have a decent and affordable transit system."