Subways and buses are an attractive alternative. Having lived in the city for the most of my life and always used public transportation (I do not even know how to drive), I can say that riding a subway is far preferrable to riding in a car (and has only gotten better over the years while being in a car has gotten worse in my experience). I spoke with a friend this morning who said took him 90 minutes to go from his house in Bay Ridge to downtown Brooklyn, a subway ride of approximately 15 minutes. If it is that bad in Brooklyn, you can imagine how horrendous Manhattan is.
Admittedly, subways are not attractive (and never will be) to those spoiled souls raised in suburbia who never get the hang of urban living, but otherwise it quite pleasureable in my experience. It will be even better as more cars are taken off the road and the number of buses is increased as a result.
> but in the mean time I'm totally against things like congestion pricing
because they create more problems than they solve.
The only problem caused is the irritation felt by the Biffs and Muffys who demand to be in their own cars and are peeved that they are finally being asked to pay the full cost of their being on public roads in them.
Brian