Part of the Solution

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority says its Central Business District Tolling Program, known as congestion pricing, “will improve quality of life for millions of people by reducing traffic in Manhattan’s most congested areas and funding improvements to New York’s transit system. Fewer cars means cleaner air, less traffic, safer streets, and better transit throughout the region.”

Makes sense. What doesn’t is forcing the Hampton Jitney — a private entity, serving as a quasi-public transportation company, delivering hundreds of people to Manhattan on a daily basis who might otherwise choose to drive there — to pay the tolls.

It’s not typical to read an editorial with a message benefiting a local business. But this is an instance where the principles are so simple, and the logic so flawed, it really seems necessary to point it out. The fact that it likely would only have a minimal effect on East End passengers’ fares — less than a dollar each way — doesn’t justify even a tiny step in the direction of discouraging the very aim of the congestion pricing program.

The idea, after all, is to remove cars from the mix in Manhattan. As stated above, that will mean safer streets, less traffic and cleaner air. Making it more expensive to drive downtown will mean encouraging the use of trains, buses and other public transportation.

In a broad sense, that includes the Jitney. Perhaps its riders are not “commuters,” in the traditional sense. But in a unique way, they are regulars who travel back and forth, often between residences. There are no public buses that provide that service; the Long Island Rail Road schedule on the South Fork in particular is notoriously challenging. Most of its riders, if they have a second choice, will take a car.

This is common sense. Until the MTA collects enough congestion pricing tolls to seriously supercharge the LIRR options for East End residents, don’t discourage the Jitney as an option. It’s part of the solution, not the problem.