With the March 31 deadline to qualify for $354M in federal transit funds approaching, the Campaign for New York’s Future and the Empire State Transportation Alliance have rolled out an ad campaign to get the public behind congestion pricing.

The three print ads and one TV spot, sponsored by Environmental Defense, direct their audience to www.BetterTransit.org, where visitors can contact council members and legislators to voice support for the plan, and to the ED web site, which has a page devoted to pricing info. In a stroke of heretofore unknown marketing genius, the print ads will appear on buses, subways and commuter rail trains throughout the region.

Congestion pricing has just over 30 days to clear the City Council and state Legislature if New York is to receive hundreds of millions of dollars for upfront transit improvements. Transportation Alternatives recently launched its own pro-pricing PR campaign, with full-page ads in weekly newspapers in Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan.

Not to be outdone, pricing opponents will certainly ratchet up the volume — and the rhetoric — in the coming weeks. Be sure to enter the Congestion Pricing Populist Soundbite Contest to join in the fun.

Video via pmasoned/YouTube