Is $8 Enough?

Daily News columnist Errol Louis gave a peek inside a reporter’s mind--and wallet--at Thursday morning’s PlaNYC panel at the New School’s Center for New York City Affairs, when he asked:

“If you are someone like me--I’ll plead guilty--who has press plates and you do have to drive in, because the story that you work on that day might be on Staten Island, or it might be in the Bronx, and you actually don’t know until it happens and so forth--the $8 doesn’t seem like a disincentive to me. Frankly, it’s not high enough.”

Rohit Aggarwala, the director of the Mayor’s Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability, first quipped, “On certain days, I think we would be very happy to have a higher price for the press.”

His real answer: The congestion pricing charge should be high enough to remind people “that they are imposing costs on the rest of the city” but not too high to punish those who must drive.