More than two months ago, we urged Mayor Bloomberg and the state legislature to slow down in its consideration of the mayor’s congestion pricing proposal.

In its frenetic push to get the plan through the state legislature, improvements to Bronx mass transit were nowhere in the equation. And inexplicably, Bronx elected officials, led by the borough president, even jumped on board the mayor’s PlaNYC, before the details of one of its most critical components were hammered out.

Luckily, the state legislature put the brakes on and didn’t succumb to pressure to pass the plan by the middle of July in order to claim half a billion dollars in federal funding. (Turns out, the deadline wasn’t really a deadline after all.)

By holding out, the legislature was able to force the creation of a 17-member congestion pricing panel to review the plan.

That’s the good news.

The bad news is that not a single member of that panel lives or works in the Bronx. That makes it much less likely that Bronx needs and issues will be addressed.

In our June editorial, we pointed out that a Bronx Arterial Needs Major Investment Study (MIS) completed in 2004 by the state Department of Transportation includes several terrific proposals including improving traffic and quality of life along the Cross Bronx Expressway. It also calls for high quality bus rapid transit on connector roads, a multi-use path along those roads for pedestrians and bicyclists, and a landscaped buffer between the road and the path. And in our area, there’s an excellent plan for fixing the perennially bottled up interchange at West Fordham Road and the Major Deegan.

Improvements to Bronx mass transit like the bus lanes on the Cross Bronx must be at least in the pipeline before congestion pricing is implemented; otherwise commuters won’t have sufficient incentives to leave their cars at home, or a way to get places if they do, given our at-capacity mass transit system.

Another problem with congestion pricing – one of many raised by Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz – is  that it rewards more affluent New Jersey commuters by subtracting their bridge tolls from the overall fee, while Bronxites, who mostly don’t used toll bridges to get to Manhattan, get no discount.

It’s good that the panel at least presents an opportunity to discuss these concerns. But the chances that they will be heeded or raised by a panel without Bronx representation are slim at best.

Our elected officials should have demanded a seat at the table before getting behind PlaNYC.