NYC: congestion pricing is back
Target start date is January 5
A story in three parts:
A very long journey
The governor of New York state halts the plan at the last minute
… and then revives it
New York’s long and winding road to congestion pricing. Bryan Walsh, Vox, June 2023.
What if I told you there was a fairly simple policy initiative that would reduce auto traffic by 15 to 20 percent in the heart of America’s most congested city, raise $1 billion annually for the country’s biggest mass transit system at a time when such services are on the edge of a financial death spiral, and improve air quality for urban neighborhoods that have long suffered disproportionately from pollution?
I have good news: Such a plan exists. It’s called congestion pricing, and at the end of June in New York City, the plan cleared its last federal hurdle. As early as next spring, motorists will be charged a fee — perhaps $23 for a rush-hour trip and $17 in off-peak hours, according to a report released last year — to enter the most crowded parts of Manhattan south of 60th Street and below Central Park.
But here’s the bad news: Assuming that Manhattan’s congestion pricing really does go into effect next spring — and one should assume nothing to do with the city and state of New York will ever happen on time — it will be 17 years since then-New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg first proposed such a program, only for it to be shot down by the New York state legislature. Even after the state finally got on board in 2019, it took years of onerous federal environmental reviews and repeatedly blown deadlines to get to the point where the program now finally seems ready to go.
That’s why congestion pricing demonstrates two things: one, that the US can implement smart solutions to some of the most difficult climate and urban problems we face today. And two, that the byzantine review system we’ve created — ostensibly to protect the environment — has made it so, so, so difficult to do so.
At the very last minute, New York state governor Kathy Hochul lost her nerve and halted the plan, blowing a big hole in the public-transit budget. New York Governor Shocks Manhattan With Halt to Congestion Pricing. Michelle Kaske, Laura Nahmias and Zach Williams, Bloomberg, June 5, 2024.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul halted a plan to charge motorists driving into Manhattan, upending an initiative years in the making that was finally set to kick in at the end of this month.
The new pricing system was set to begin June 30 and would have been the first of its kind in the US. It was expected to bring in $1 billion a year to help modernize a more than 100-year old transit system that’s been ravaged by episodes of heavy rain and severe flooding. The money was meant to finance subway signal upgrades to reduce train delays, new electric buses and extending the Second Avenue subway to Harlem.
“This is a shocker,” said Andrew Albert, an MTA board member who voted in favor of congestion pricing. “It’s just unreal. The longer you wait, the more expensive things get.”
The shift away from the tolling initiative is a stunning reversal for Hochul, who just two weeks ago touted the plan as a way to reduce the city’s idle traffic. Virtually all of the tolling gantries are already installed on Manhattan streets and ready to charge drivers.
“It took a long time because people feared backlash from drivers set in their ways,” Hochul said at the time. “But, much like with housing, if we’re serious about making cities more livable, we must get over that.”
After the November election, Hochul revived the plan, hoping to get it in place before Trump’s inauguration in late January. NYC congestion pricing will start in January at $9, Gov. Kathy Hochul says.
Congestion pricing will start in New York City in January with a $9 toll, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Thursday.
Hochul wants to restart the program at a reduced rate, which is why it's being lowered from $15 for most daytime trips into Manhattan's Congestion Relief Zone.
Sources told CBS News New York's Marcia Kramer $9 was the lowest rate cited on the environmental impact report, so anything below that amount would require a new report.
The plan still has to pass a few hurdles, including an MTA vote on the new pricing structure during a board meeting next week. It also has to go through a federal review, and the scanners need to be tested before a start date is set, but the governor hopes it can go into effect on Jan. 5.
"Congestion pricing is fundamentally about meeting three critical objectives: Ensuring our commuters can rely on safe subways and commuter trains now and into the future; ensuring we can decongest our clogged streets, improving the quality of life for residents, the safety of pedestrians and access for emergency vehicles; and ensuring we reduce vehicle emissions to enhance our air quality," Hochul said.
More
Wikipedia on congestion pricing.
What happens when roads aren’t free? Deny Sullivan, summarizing a report he co-wrote with Robert Bain. Across a sample of 76 studies, they found that on average, imposing a toll reduces traffic by about 25%.
In Metro Vancouver: the need for more TransLink funding.