Without Fee, City Drivers Unlikely To Change Habits

Most New Yorkers have access to mass transit and drive by choice, not by necessity, a new survey by the Partnership for New York City shows. While they acknowledge that traffic is a serious problem in the city, those drivers would be unlikely to change their commuting habits unless a charge to use the city's most overcrowded roads were imposed, the poll of 500 driving New Yorkers shows.

About 46% of New York City residents who drive into Manhattan south of 86th street would switch to mass transit options if there were an $8 charge to use those streets during peak hours, as Mayor Bloomberg has proposed.

The survey also finds that New Yorkers are almost evenly split on the Mayor's congestion pricing plan: about 45% of New Yorkers said they supported the concept, and 47% said they opposed it after they were informed of the potential economic and environmental benefits of reducing the number of cars on the roads.