Politics Failed, but Fuel Prices Cut Congestion

Soaring gas prices and higher tolls seem to be doing for traffic in New York what Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg?s ambitious congestion pricing was supposed to do: reducing the number of cars clogging the city?s streets and pushing more people to use mass transit. In May, with gasoline at more than $4 a gallon, traffic at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority?s bridges and tunnels dropped 4.7 percent compared with the same month the previous year.