DOT 48-08
Monday, April 7, 2008
Contact: Sarah Echols
Tel.: (202) 366-4570

Statement from U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters

“Thanks to the leadership of Mayor Bloomberg, Governor Paterson, Majority Leader Bruno, the City Council and many other state and local officials and civic, environmental, business and labor organizations, New York has engaged in one of the most vigorous and significant debates about transportation policy in modern U.S. history. While today's announcement, if accurate, is deeply disappointing, New York’s mounting traffic and environmental woes point to congestion pricing as an inevitable solution, even if not in the next few months or with the assistance of federal Urban Partnership dollars. Starting tomorrow, we will engage with many of the largest cities in the United States that have put forward ambitious traffic fighting plans to discuss how they could use this money to cut traffic, improve transit and reduce pollution.”