The solution is roadway pricing - a variety of means of collecting revenue from motorists in proportion to their driving. Each mile driven in the city imposes costs in pollution, congestion and the need for government services such as paving and policing, which collectively outweigh the tolls, tickets and gas taxes paid by city drivers. But with the advent of technologies to meter driving, opportunities to apply pricing approaches have arrived, just in time to create a robust new source of transit revenue.

Taxicabs are a good place to initiate roadway pricing. Medallion cabs operate almost exclusively in Manhattan, contributing to endemic gridlock, and yet are not charged for use of public roads. A surcharge of 25¢/mile, discounted to 10¢/mile off-peak, would generate $125 million a year, offsetting the probable cut in federal operating and capital funds, and saving the equivalent of a dime fare hike. Passengers would pay the mileage surcharge in their fare, but drivers would ante up for non-fare miles, promoting use of cab stands and reducing congestion-causing taxi cruising.

A bigger revenue source is needed to offset state and city transit cuts totaling $300 million or more. The city Dept. of Transportation estimates that $3 tolls could raise $375 million a year on the four East River bridges and another $300 million on the Harlem River spans. The need for traffic-stopping toll plazas would be obviated by electronic tolling using the E-ZPass system operating on the Tappan Zee Bridge (soon to be extended to the entire tri-state region and Pennsylvania). Cameras would record license plates of vehicles without E-ZPass for billing by mail, as the city now does to catch red-light violators at selected intersections.

For the long haul, the city needs to reduce transit funding sources that tax productive economic activity, such as business and sales tax surcharges, and substitute mechanisms that tax pollution. One option is to charge vehicles based on miles traveled times emission rates, using nominal pollution ratings assigned to each vehicle model. Unlike taxi surcharges or bridge tolls, these "smog fees" would encompass all NYC vehicle use.

Roadway pricing could fundamentally change travel for the better. With a dedicated revenue stream, NYC Transit could eliminate its operating deficit, stabilize the fare, and get the rebuilding plan back on track. Traffic and the many side-effects of cars' domination over public space would diminish, because transit would work better and because of powerful new incentives to economize on driving. With traffic costing city residents and businesses up to $20 billion a year in lost time and health, the gains from reducing over-use of cars and trucks could be substantial.

The 50-year decline of the city's transit system and the 50-year era of hellish traffic are linked, by a system that makes public transportation scrounge for money while inviting motor vehicles to use our public resources - our streets, air and lungs - for a pittance. Mayor Giuliani can begin to undo the damage, by requiring private travel to pay its own way and applying the proceeds to the public transport system that benefits us all.

By Charles Komanoff -- for fuller treatment of road pricing and traffic subsidies, contact KEA, 212-334-9767