NEW YORK - Already trailing in the polls, gubernatorial candidate Tom Suozzi has risked angering commuters by suggesting that drivers on the Long Island Expressway and other traffic-choked highways be charged new fees for using the road during rush hours.

Suozzi, the Nassau County executive hoping to swipe the Democratic nomination from front-runner Eliot Spitzer, said he favored a system called “congestion pricing” to alleviate traffic by pressuring people to drive at different hours.

The idea is one that has been embraced by some urban planners for years, but long written off by U.S. politicians as too likely to enrage drivers already fuming over costly tolls and hefty fuel costs.

But speaking at a regional planning conference in Manhattan on Friday, Suozzi said New York might see some benefits from emulating a road fees system similar to one implemented in London.

There, drivers need to pay in advance to enter the city's central business district. Cameras record the license plates of people who come and go without the required pass.

Violators get tickets in the mail.

London's fees have driven some people off the streets and into public transit, and Suozzi said the same idea could reduce traffic on major highways around New York.

“A congestion mitigation plan will reduce congestion, improve traffic flow, and thereby improve the environment and our quality of life,” Suozzi said in a written statement.

“Additionally, it will create a revenue stream that can be invested in transportation improvements throughout the region.”

Proposing a new tax or toll during an election campaign can be perilous for a politician, but Suozzi said he thought his constituents would like the idea in the long run if it succeeded in opening up clogged highways.

His opponent, Spitzer, opposes the idea.

“Commuting is a way of life on Long Island, and this amounts to an unfair tax on commuters,” said Spitzer campaign spokesman Ryan Toohey.

Some drivers headed into New York City already pay tolls of between $4 and $6, depending on the time of day and whether they participate in the E-ZPass electronic fare collection system.

Suozzi didn't outline details of how congestion pricing might work in metropolitan New York, but said it wouldn't make bridge and tunnel crossings more expensive and could use existing E-ZPass technology.

The candidate embraced the idea of congestion pricing just days after announcing a proposal he said would cut property taxes by $2.15 billion in the New York counties that have the state's highest tax rates.

AP-ES-05-06-06 1356EDT