Bait With A Really Stank Piece Of Bait Then Switch To A Less-Stank Piece Of Bait

And for some, the end of ever taking a cab home:

The chairman of the state commission studying ways to reduce traffic in Manhattan is increasingly pushing a measure certain to prompt opposition in the rest of the city: charging tolls on the four East River Bridges.

“I’ve made it pretty clear that I think the bridge tolls proposals might be part of a solution that this commission’s going to look at before it’s over,” said Marc V. Shaw, the commission chairman, after a meeting of the panel on Monday.

Tolls on the bridges would most likely be presented as part of a scaled-back version of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s original congestion pricing plan.

. . .

In an interview yesterday, Mr. Shaw, a real estate executive and a former first deputy mayor under Mr. Bloomberg, said tolling the bridges was appealing partly because, like the mayor’s proposal, it could both discourage people from driving into Manhattan and raise substantial revenue.

The mayor estimated that his congestion-pricing plan would raise $380 million a year in revenues, after subtracting the cost of operating the system. Research material provided to commission members this week suggests that East River Bridge tolls could result in gross revenues of $500 million, although Mr. Shaw said the estimate could be revised before next Monday, when the commission is scheduled to discuss the bridge tolls.

The bridge tolls are projected to cause a 5.8 percent drop in traffic, and the mayor’s congestion pricing plan would cut traffic by an estimated 6.3 percent. Mr. Shaw said that a revised plan could include an alternate way to raise revenues on travel within the congestion zone, such as through a surcharge on taxi trips.

A public official who helped develop the mayor’s congestion plan questioned the wisdom of trading it for something equally controversial.

“I feel like its Groundhog Day,” said the official, who was not authorized to speak for the administration and asked not to be named. “We’re back to where we were during the Koch years. Is that sort of the death knell for congestion pricing?”