New York ratifies the first toll system for private vehicles to be applied in the United States

New York drivers who want to access the financial district, the central almond of Manhattan, will have to take out their wallets starting in mid-June, the expected date of entry into force of the measure ratified this Wednesday by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). in its English acronym): the first congestion pricing plan in the United States. The vote on the plan ended with eleven supports and a single vote against.

The new plan will charge most cars $15 to access southbound 60th Street during rush hour. Its objective is to reduce traffic, improve air quality, increase the number of users of public transport and, a non-incidental detail, generate about 1 billion dollars of income a year to modernize the antiquated network of subways, buses and trains. near the MTA.

“We know that congestion pricing is going to lead to less pollution, less congestion and a better economy,” said Carl Weisbrod, head of the MTA subcommittee that developed the plan and former director of the New York Department of City Planning. But the program raises controversy and faces several judicial appeals - one of the most important, that of New Jersey, the dormitory city-state of New York - that could delay its entry into force.

The measure, unprecedented in the United States but already applied in European cities such as London, Milan or Stockholm, was already approved in December by the MTA. Technically called “congestion toll,” it will be applied in a city where its citizens spend an average of 236 hours a year stuck in traffic, according to a recent report. The $15 fee (half for motorcycles) will apply between five in the morning and nine at night (and from nine to nine on weekends); Off-peak hours will cost 75% less. There will be discounts for motorists with lower incomes (below $50,000 per year) who need the car to get around. However, as a 2022 study recalled, the majority of drivers who access Manhattan have medium or high incomes, so the bonuses will be 4%.

Taxis will pay $1.25, which will likely fall to the passenger, the same as the $2.50 that will be charged to vehicles from platforms such as Uber or Lyft. In addition, the payment of the toll will increase by 25% on the annual “traffic alert days”, which occur during the UN General Assembly in September, and during periods of high travel such as Christmas. An additional fee for traffic jams is already applied to taxis (which exponentially increases the cost of the trip).

Although New York is one of the few cities in the United States where the pedestrian is not seen as an outcast, the enormous distances between the five boroughs that make it up increase dependence on the automobile, especially for residents who live outside of Manhattan. Or for New Jersey residents who work in Manhattan. Hence, while the MTA, public transportation advocates and environmental groups support it, critics say that pricing, in addition to

penalizing

New Yorkers who depend on cars for their work, will put small businesses in trouble, which will have to absorb the expense or pass it on to customers. Furthermore, the measure comes at a time when insecurity in the subway is showing worrying signs, with violent actions such as the one that this week cost the life of a user thrown onto the tracks by a man with an untreated mental disorder: a sad well-known reality in the suburban area.

For residents in New Jersey, New York's twin state, the plan adds a new toll to the tunnel fees they already pay to enter Manhattan. A New Jersey district court based in Newark is scheduled to hear oral arguments next week in Gov. Phil Murphy's lawsuit, which seeks a more thorough environmental analysis of the program. The borough of Staten Island, the least populated in New York and lacking good connections to Manhattan, and a group of residents have also filed lawsuits to delay or stop the application of the new toll.

These lawsuits have forced the MTA to suspend subway signal improvement projects in Manhattan and Brooklyn. Other plans are in danger: the addition of elevators to subway stations - accessibility is almost science fiction in the city's aging subway system -, the replacement of old cars, the expansion of the Second Avenue subway line and even routine repair projects, which turns the subway into a daily source of surprises, with significant delays, cancellations or diversions of lines and stations, all of them unexpected.

The only vote against the new toll plan was that of the representative of Nassau County on Long Island, like Staten Island, so far from Manhattan that traveling there by public transportation can take two hours, depending on the means used. Their rejection was based on two objections: that the new rate will hurt businesses and the fact that it will further deter New Yorkers from returning to financial district offices, who have not yet recovered from the pandemic shift to teleworking. .

Before approving the measure, the MTA opened the process to public deliberations, so that New York residents could express their opinion on the matter. Of the 26,000 comments and testimonials received, 60% supported the congestion toll plan, while 32% were against it.

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