Michael Lissack cargo. The dialogue as it has existed to present day has focused on private vehicles -- as a result it leads to outrage either in the form of “who are you to ban me from using my car?” or “but the poor cannot afford to pay for these special levies you propose” and with these arguments the issue seems to die. Of course the congestion remains and detracts from every New Yorker’s quality of life. So why not ask about double parking and about trucks? Well as it turns out those two questions are actually the same. The ma- jority of double parked vehicles that cannot seem to be towed out of the way fast enough are trucks making “I deliveries or pickups. So why are trucks allowed in this part of the City during the day? Many European cities ban trucks above a certain size from using the central city during the day -- they operate on theory that pickups and deliveries can occur either at more quiet hours or through the use of vans which take up less space. On the surface it would seem that this idea should have merit -- traffic congestion would decrease, resulting pollution concerns would be addressed, and even more jobs would be created. (There would be a whole new industry involved with the transfer of goods from trucks and rail to vans and vice versa along with the pickups and deliveries associated therewith.) A variety of worthy public goals could be addressed. Ah, but the calculus of the public interest takes over. In a similar light, riders on the crowded Lexington Avenue subway line (the east side), see congestion in a different perspective from office building owners on the west side. What may be intolerable to a commuter, may, from the perspective of certain real estate developers, signal not the need for more transit on the east side, but more development on the west. Commuters cry out for the completion of the Second Avenue Subway - delayed now for seventy years, while the developers ask, Why make the east side more ac- cessible? If you promote transit improvements on the east side, it will only encourage developers to build more space east instead of west. Why at any rate, would you want to pay taxes to promote well-being of your competitors? Funny, the City seems to side with the developers. So too with trucks and congestion. To any one citizen, the benefits from such a no trucks during the work day policy would be visible but nearly
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