THE number of vehicles coming into Manhat tan from New Jersey dropped slightly after bridge and tunnel tolls were increased earlier this month, sparking a debate between supporters and opponents of congestion pricing.
Port Authority officials said about 3,800 fewer vehicles a day crossed into the city between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. since March 2, when tolls jumped from $6 to $8.
That’s a decrease of 2.2 percent from the 170,000 making the crossing before the increase.
Mayor Bloomberg was quick to seize on the figures as evidence that congestion pricing can induce motorists to abandon their cars.
Bloomberg, of course, had good reason to adopt that view.
He is pushing a plan to impose an $8 charge on vehicles coming into Manhattan on weekdays between those same 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. hours.
Officials say that will result in a 6.8 percent decrease in vehicular traffic, up from their first estimate of 6.3 percent, as well as a $500 million windfall for mass transit.
Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan described the early results from New Jersey as a harbinger of good things to come for the city.
“I think it’s a significant number, and it’s certainly consistent with the numbers we’ve seen,” she said.
But opponents of the mayor’s plan questioned whether the skimpy data was meaningful.
“I don’t know that the numbers are really indicative one way or another,” argued Walter McCaffrey, a lobbyist who is leading the anti-congestion-pricing forces.
He said the downturn in traffic could easily be explained by economic conditions.
“We’ve seen what’s going on with Bear Sterns,” he said, referring to the failed investment bank that is being taken over and shedding thousands of jobs here.
In any case, McCaffrey said the missing traffic is likely to return.
“Even when it goes down first, it tends to come back afterwards,” he said.
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Low-income motorists will be getting a break if congestion pricing is enacted.
One source said officials are planning to offer the break on city tax returns to motorists who pay the $8 and qualify for the earned-income credit.
For a couple with one child, the earned-income credit cutoff is currently $35,241 in annual income.
“It’ll cost something like $10 million” out of the $500 million expected to be raised, the source said.
“We’re not talking about a lot of money.”