Administrative action: Vehicles drive into Manhattan over the Brooklyn Bridge on the first day of New York City’s planned congestion pricing programme to charge drivers for entering the central business district in Manhattan below 60th street. — Reuters
NEW YORK: New York City kicked off the first congestion pricing programme in the United States, part of an effort to reduce the number of vehicles in the world’s most traffic-clogged urban area while raising money for transit infrastructure.
“Traffic is good,” Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) chief executive officer Janno Lieber said last Sunday at a news conference at Grand Central Terminal.
“It’s flowing freely at normal volumes and there haven’t been any exceptional incidents.”
The new toll began just after midnight on Sunday, with the big test coming as commuters return to the city for the regular weekday rush hours.
Motorists driving into the zone south of 60th Street in Manhattan will now pay US$9 during peak hours as part of a plan to bring US$15bil to the MTA, the agency that runs the city’s century-old subway and commuter-rail lines that are desperately in need of upgrades.
“We are closely coordinating with the MTA on the rollout of congestion pricing and we continue to work to reimagine our streets, making it easier than ever to travel to and through Manhattan’s core without a car,” Ydanis Rodriguez, commissioner of New York City’s Department of Transportation, said in a statement.
About 500,000 to 700,000 vehicles drive through the tolled zone, called the central business district, during a typical weekday.
Following similar initiatives in London, Stockholm and Singapore, the goal is to coax more people to use mass transit and encourage trucks to make deliveries overnight, ultimately reducing the number of vehicles in the zone by 80,000 per weekday, the MTA said.
The agency has set up 1,400 cameras and more than 110 different detection points along the borders of the tolled zone, according to Lieber.
“That’s the benchmark,” Lieber said of the typical weekday traffic numbers. “And we’re going to be watching it very, very closely.
“Over time, we’re going to be looking at how traffic is changing, the number of vehicles and where they’re coming and where they’re going.”
One hurdle is some residents don’t feel safe on the subways.
The fatal burning last month of a woman sitting in a subway car at Coney Island shocked the city, and there have been several stabbings and incidents of people pushing riders onto train tracks.
New York governor Kathy Hochul last month sent an additional 250 National Guard members into the subway system, after an initial deployment of 750 officers in March to help perform random bag checks.
While total reported crimes on the subway were down about 12% in 2024 through Dec 29 compared with all of 2019, before the pandemic, felony assaults still plague the system, according to New York Police Department (NYPD) data.
There were 573 such incidents in the 2024 period, the most since at least 1997, and also 10 murders on the subway, double the figure from the prior year.
Leslie Cordero, 25, has a 30-minute car commute to Manhattan’s Upper East Side from her home in the Jackson Heights neighborhood of Queens.
With congestion pricing, the teacher said she can’t afford to drive into work anymore. Her train commute will take her an hour and 15 minutes, and she’s terrified about crime on the subway.
“It’s just scary,” Cordero said. “Am I going to make it to work today? Am I going to get back home?
“I just need to be very careful and watch all of my surroundings, but you just never know what is going to happen.”
Traffic in the city is also dangerous. There were 252 traffic fatalities in 2024 through Dec 29, down slightly from 262 such incidents in 2023, according to NYPD data.
Ben Abbett, a recent transplant from Boston who lives on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, walks or takes the subway to his work as an interior designer in Midtown where vehicle traffic leaves him on edge.
“It’s always really intense down there, like borderline violent with that many cars trying to get through intersections,” said Abbett, 29, who recently sold his car because the insurance was too expensive.
The debut of congestion pricing follows years of political bickering and legal challenges, some of which are still ongoing.
While New Jersey was unsuccessful in its 11th-hour attempt to block last Sunday’s implementation, the judge in that case has given the Federal Highway Administration a Jan 17 deadline to file additional information on efforts to mitigate the tolling plan’s potential effects on traffic and pollution in the Garden State.
A change in administrations in Washington three days later on Jan 20 also looms large over the tolling plan.
‘Regressive tax’
In November, President-elect Donald Trump called the charge a “regressive tax” and said it would be “virtually impossible” for New York City to come back if congestion pricing is in effect.
Trump may seek a longer environmental review of the programme through a legal suit or find a way to stop the tolling through administrative action, according to Brad Lander, New York City’s Comptroller.
The judge in the case, Leo Gordon, is also asking for additional filings beyond Inauguration Day.
Transit enthusiasts, environmental advocates and some business groups have highlighted the programme’s goals of boosting public-transportation ridership, reducing air pollution and decreasing traffic in one of the world’s most congested urban areas.
The MTA will use the revenue to extend the Second Avenue subway to Harlem, modernise train signals from the 1930s and make more stations accessible.
About 1.3 million people take public transportation into the district for work compared with 143,000 who drive, according to the MTA.
Still, some in New York and New Jersey warn of the plan’s potential burden on the area’s economy.
Nick Watkin, a photographer who lives in the Bronx, said he drives into the city about three or four times a week for work, and taking public transportation would double his commuting time.
Reducing trips
Watkin, 30, said he’ll have to increase his rates and possibly cut down on trips to the city.
“I’m thinking about the businesses that are going to lose business because they’re going to have to pay more for stuff to get shipped in,” he said.
Passenger cars with an E-ZPass will pay US$9 once a day to enter the tolled area during peak hours, but will receive credits of between US$1.50 and US$3 if motorists already paid tolls on certain tunnels headed into Manhattan.
Smaller trucks with an E-ZPass will pay US$14.40 every time they enter the district during prime hours, with tunnel crossing credits of US$3.60 to US$7.20.
The fees are collected seven days a week. Peak hours are defined as 5am to 9pm on weekdays and 9am to 9pm on weekends.
Passengers in for-hire vehicles like Uber and Lyft will pay a per-trip charge of US$1.50 while riders in taxis will pay a 75-US cents fee.
There’s no toll on the West Side Highway or the Franklin D. Roosevelt East River Drive, but motorists will pay the fee if they leave those highways and enter the district south of 60th Street.
Discounts for low-income drivers, tax credits for low-income residents of the central business district, and disability exemptions for individuals who are unable to access public transportation will also be available. — Bloomberg
