The congestion fee is an idea that has floated around the city for years, but was only formally announced in the mayor’s Earth Day speech. In order to alleviate traffic pressure in the city’s top business area –– streets below 86th Street –– drivers entering those areas between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. would be required to pay an $8 fee, according to the mayor’s proposal. A system of cameras would snap people’s license plates for billing, and the revenue would be used to expand mass transit.
   McCaffrey, who now heads his own public policy firm in Woodside, the community he represented for 16 years, said last Friday that his experience as a politician combined with living in Queens gives him a unique perspective on the proposed pricing.
   He views public policy in its abstract form, but more importantly, sees its concrete impact on neighborhoods. The congestion pricing, he said, would kill local businesses. “There are portions of Queens, in Eastern Queens, where mass transit is not strong. People have to rely on driving. There are areas like Maspeth that are ill-served by mass transit,” he said.
   Businesses in these areas would be crushed by a fee, which McCaffrey said he could see eventually rising to $20. He also noted that seniors would especially be hit hard because many travel into Manhattan for medical care.
   “If you are a senior citizen and you have to go for a cancer treatment, they can’t put them in that situation (and say) ‘Well, you can take mass transit.’”
   McCaffrey said congestion pricing is not the only way to deal with traffic problems, which according to the mayor’s PlaNYC 2030, may mushroom into 12-hour gridlock periods. Increasing local and express bus service in areas where mass transit is scant is one solution, and he endorses the idea of ferry service from the Rockaways to lower Manhattan.
   But not everyone is convinced those solutions will clear the roads. According to Partnership for New York City, an organization of 200 business leaders, a recent poll of 500 city residents found that 17 percent said they drive because mass transit is limited, while more than half cited the convenience of making their own schedule as the reason why they drive into Manhattan. Even though 51 percent of those surveyed said they would oppose a congestion fee, 49 percent said it would not change their driving habits.
   This troubles McCaffrey, who said working-class people will bear the largest burden if congestion pricing is approved. He said other measures should be taken first, like holding contractors accountable for blocking lanes of traffic for construction and increasing police enforcement of double parked vehicles.
   For now, McCaffrey said he is working with the coalition to lobby in Albany, because the fee requires state approval.
   The coalition is also starting a Web site in a few weeks, a development that McCaffrey said will increase its visibility and allow its message to catch on in other boroughs.