NEW YORK CITY The Bush Administration REALLY wants cars, trucks and buses to pay a fee for traveling in Manhattan south of 86th Street, and it has told state and city policy makers if they want a huge pile of federal money to help fight traffic tie-ups they'll adopt congestion pricing.

The issue of using tolls based on the level of congestion to reduce traffic on Manhattan streets surfaced this past summer when Mayor Michael Bloomberg proposed a traffic plan that would charge a daily fee for trucks, autos and buses to drive in Lower Manhattan between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. (See May 15, July 1 and Aug. 15 issues of Bus & Motorcoach News.)

Under Bloomberg's plan, trucks would be charged $21 and cars $8 each day they drive into Manhattan. Privately owned buses were not mentioned in the plan, nor were they specifically excluded, indicating buses will be included and charged a fee as well.

The New York Legislature shot down the mayors plan in the waning hours of its legislative session this past summer but resurrected the idea during a special session, creating a special commission to study traffic congestion in New York City and come up with a plan for mitigating it. The mayor's plan will be considered along with other ideas.

Meanwhile, the Bush Administration and the U.S. Department of Transportation have served notice they like the Bloomberg proposal and want to sign a partnership agreement that adopts all of the big-ticket items in the mayors plan. They include:

Instituting "a broad area pricing system" (i.e. congestion pricing) in Manhattan south of 86th Street

Constructing transit facilities, including two transit bus depots, a transit bus lay-up facility, park-n-ride facilities, and pedestrian improvements

Constructing a series of bus rapid transit and/or transit bus-based corridors

Adopting new technologies, including bus signal priority for selected Manhattan transit corridors

Making improvements to the regional ferry service

Constructing an East River bus lane

Purchasing and operating additional public transit buses

In exchange for committing to all of these things, USDOT will allocate $354.5 million in federal grants to help pay for the bulk of the items.

And in a warning to the New York State Legislature and the New York City Council, USDOT said if they approve an alternative congestion mitigation plan for the city, no federal assistance will be provided unless the alternate can be "reasonably projected to achieve material reductions in traffic congestion within New York City by means of congestion pricing and provides bus service sufficient to meet the mobility needs of New York City."

In either case, New York must come up with an acceptable plan and have it operational no later than March 31, 2009, to get the dough.