Most drivers would pay $15 to enter Manhattan’s central business district, according to a plan released Thursday by New York authorities. THE congestion pricing planincluding neighboring New Jersey filed a lawsuit, It will be the first program of its kind in the United States if approved by transportation officials early next year.
Under the plan, passenger car drivers entering Manhattan south of 60th Street during the day would be charged $15 electronically, while the fee for small trucks would be $24 and large trucks $36.
Cities like London and Stockholm have implemented similar programs, but New York City is poised to become the first in the United States.
Toll revenue, estimated at about $1 billion a year, would be used to fund borrowing to upgrade the city’s transit systems.
THE proposal from the Traffic Mobility Review Board, a New York State agency charged with advising the Metropolitan Transportation Authority on tolls, offers discounts for travel between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m. and for low-income frequent drivers. Government vehicles such as municipal garbage trucks would be exempt.
Taxi drivers would pass on a $1.25 surcharge to their passengers for entering the congestion zone, while passengers using an app would see a $2.50 surcharge.
Officials say that in addition to funding needed transit improvements, congestion pricing will lead to improved air quality and reduced traffic.
“Without this, we will be choking our own traffic for a long time to come and the MTA will not have the funds to provide quality service,” said Carl Weisbrod, chairman of the traffic review committee, in presenting the report. report to MTA officials.
Among the opponents are taxi drivers, who had called for a total exemption.
“The city has already decimated the taxi industry with years of unregulated and uncontrolled competition from taxis. Uber And Lyft, and the MTA appears poised to deliver the final blow to the prospects for stability and modest survival,” Bhairavi Desai, executive director of the New York City Taxi Workers Alliance, said in a press release. “If this proposal is implemented, thousands of driving families will be pushed back into critical poverty, with no relief in sight. »
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy criticized the Highway Mobility Council’s proposal after some news outlets reported on it Wednesday before its official release.
“The credit structure recommended by the Traffic Mobility Review Board is grossly inadequate, particularly the complete lack of toll credits for the George Washington Bridge, which will result in toll purchases, increased congestion in underserved communities and excessive tolls at railroad crossings from New Jersey to Manhattan,” Murphy, who filed a federal complaint regarding congestion pricing in July, said in a statement.
The MTA board will vote on the plan after a series of public hearings scheduled for February 2024.
