ome traffic experts say the heavy artillery of the "Don't Block the Box" campaign — $65 fines and two points on a driver's license — is a smart tactic. Mark Cullewicz, a traffic engineer with the New York Automobile Association, says drivers will be deterred from blocking the box by knowing the city will issue tickets. "They need to let the word go out that they will conduct these enforcements," he says.

Others say the city's offensive is little more than a stopgap approach to a larger problem. "While it may be nominally effective, whether it's efficient is another question," says Charles Komanoff, an economist at Right of Way, a pedestrian advocacy group in New York. He advocates radical measures to cut down on the number of cars in the city, including moving toward road pricing, which would charge drivers according to how far and where they drive.

This view is echoed by Ellen Cavanagh, a program director at Transportation Alternatives, a group that promotes public transport and other measures to cut down on traffic congestion. "The city's always in a catch-up game, picking up the pieces of what happens when you make it easy to drive into the city," she says. The main flaw in the city's war on gridlock, Cavanagh says, is that it's geared to getting cars and trucks, not people, through the city. "What's the ultimate goal?" she asks.