BY JILL D’AMICO

Today, Aug. 27, the City announced it will be issuing a Request for Expressions of Interest (RFEI), asking for the input of “firms or teams of firms with the ability to perform all or most of the services required to design, implement, operate and maintain a congestion pricing program for New York City.”

The move, customarily made in the preliminary stages of the procurement process, will allow the City to gauge interest in the marketplace for the particulars of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s highly touted, yet controversial congestion pricing plan.

Interested parties will be asked to identify key issues regarding equipment, operations, enforcement, maintenance, privacy, urban design, communications, interoperability with E-ZPass and data monitoring.

Moving Ahead
Last week, a 17-member Traffic Mitigation Congestion Commission was named to formally recommend a congestion reducing plan to the City and State by a March 31, 2008 deadline.

According to Deputy Mayor for Economic Development and Rebuilding Dan Doctoroff, the City believes the Mayor’s plan - “or something very close to it” - will be the best way to tackle congestion.

The Commission, which was appointed by the Mayor, City Council Speaker, Governor and State Legislative leaders, is largely made up of congestion pricing advocates.

Elizabeth Yeampierre, Commission member and executive director of UPROSE, Brooklyn’s oldest Latino community-based organization, has supported congestion pricing in the past. She said the issue is not about partisanship, but coming up with an effective means of decreasing traffic and protecting the environment.
“[The Commission] is concerned about the same things. Something has to happen – the population has to increase, we know there’s no stopping that. This is not a time for playing political games.”

“The Traffic Mitigation Congestion Commission will examine our plan and other pricing plans, and the responses from firms with the right technological expertise will be useful to demonstrate in detail how such a plan may be implemented,” said Mayor Bloomberg. “If we are going to meet the required implementation date of March 31, 2008 to receive $354.5 million in federal funds, we have to begin planning now.”

“The responses from the private sector will give us a better understanding of the various approaches for successfully implementing a reliable and effective congestion pricing plan,” explained Mr. Doctoroff.

To Submit a Proposal
The City said the RFEI responses will be used for planning purposes only, and while no contractors will be tapped through this process, any future Requests for Proposals (RFP’s) may be issued solely to firms that respond now - assuming the plan gets a green light.

To obtain a copy of the complete RFEI, visit NYCED. A pre-submission meeting for the RFEI will be held at NYCEDC on Monday, Sept. 10, 2007 at 3:45 p.m. at 110 William Street, New York City. Those wishing to attend must RSVP by e-mail to CongestionpricingRFEI@nycedc.com on or before Friday, September 7, 2007. Interested parties are urged to attend the informational meeting.  Responses to the RFEI are due by 4 p.m. on Tuesday, October 2, 2007.