Entering New York by road will soon have a cost: $15. This is what motorists will have to pay at the urban tolls placed at the entrance to the city from next June. The objective? Reduce traffic jams, encourage residents to use the metro to limit pollution and relieve congestion on the main avenues of the megacity of more than 8 million inhabitants.
What exactly to expect?
The toll zone will be located from 60th Street in Manhattan, one of the busiest areas of the city with more than 700,000 vehicles entering it daily. It will extend to the southern boroughs (Queens, Brooklyn) and New Jersey.
Cars and vans will have to pay $15 per crossing during the day, and $3.75 at night. Trucks and coaches will have to pay $24 to $36, while the fare for the famous yellow taxis will increase by $1.25 for each trip. Exceptions will be made for emergency vehicles, which will be able to continue to circulate free of charge. Low-income drivers will be able to benefit from discounts.
What impact for residents?
Paying to travel by car is nothing new for New Yorkers. The city is already surrounded by several tolls on highways, bridges and tunnels serving its major suburbs, such as the Holland Tunnel, which connects central New York to Jersey City. This is the one that Anne-Laure Bernard, a French expatriate living in Manhattan, takes three times a week to go to her workplace. Currently, she already spends $15 each time she passes, on top of insurance and parking fees.
“
In total, I have to pay $200 a month to drive to southern New Jersey. This is the equivalent of the cost of my food shopping for a week. And salaries do not follow, it becomes very complicated
,” she explains.
In his situation, public transport does not appear to be an alternative. Its journey time, around 50 minutes, would be extended by two hours. “
I don't understand why the residents of Manhattan are not entitled to financial aid
,” expresses Anne-Laure Bernard, who is seriously considering an anticipated return to France because of the exorbitant prices of her New York daily.
1 billion dollars per year
This project, considered since 2007 and implemented in 2019, was approved by the vote of the board of directors of the public metro and commuter train operator (MTA) on March 27. This measure also aims to increase revenues from the transport network, impacted by the drop in ridership since Covid-19. The MTA plans to generate $1 billion a year from this tax to improve public transportation.
The network must still await federal approval and ensure that administrative appeals from the neighboring state of New Jersey or taxis and VTCs do not block the project. But MTA CEO Janno Lieber is confident. In a press release, he congratulated himself by explaining that it was “
one of the most important votes of the council
” and ensuring that the network “
was ready
”.
“
One of the major objectives is to finally tackle traffic jams, but also, at the other end of the chain, to invest more in the public transport network
,” he said. New York would be the first American city to implement such a system. In Europe, London and Stockholm already have tolls, as well as Singapore, for Asia.