It seems New Yorkers are green with envy at Bermuda’s one-household, one-car policy. And the Mayor, who is also resident on the Island, is being urged to lead by example.

Michael Bloomberg, despite owning a multi-million dollar home in Tucker’s Town, is only allowed a single vehicle just like any other household.

The Mayor this week announced plans to reduce congestion in New York, but commentators say that if he looked a bit closer to home he could reduce the number of cars in the Big Apple by a quarter. Mr. Bloomberg faces the challenge of engineering a sustainability plan to cope with New York’s expected population rise of one million — to reach nine million — by 2030.

This week he announced congestion pricing — to charge drivers $8 a day for entering Manhattan below 86th Street. The idea is modelled on London, where vehicles must pay to drive through the city centre between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m.

Although some New Yorkers have embraced the proposal, saying it will result in cleaner air and safer roads, others say it is an unfair tax on commuters. However, Michael Daly, a New York Daily News columnist, said the answer to Mr. Bloomberg’s dilemma was actually on his own doorstep. “If he really wants to reduce traffic congestion, Mayor Bloomberg could cut the number of cars in New York by almost a quarter if he followed the example of the pink protectorate, where even a billionaire can own only a single car.”

He said that by reducing the number of cars by one in 300,000 registered households with two or more, and 80,000 with three or more, this would remove 460,000 from Manhattan’s roads.