NEW YORK — The Metropolitan Transportation Authority board has approved toll rates for Manhattan’s planned congestion pricing program, which is intended to fund improvements to MTA transit programs.
The board voted 11-1 at a meeting today (March 27) to approve tolls of $15 during the day and $3.75 at night in the congestion zone below 60th street. Trucks and some buses will be charged $24 or $36 during the day and $6 or $9 at night, while motorcycles will be charged $7.50 during the day and $1.75 at night. There will also be new fees for taxis and other for-high vehicles.
“Today’s vote is one of the most significant the board has ever undertaken, and the MTA is ready,” MTA CEO Janno Lieber said in a press release. “In advance of day one of tolling, we’ve increased service on 12 subway lines, advanced redesigns of the entire NYC bus network, and implemented the largest service increase in LIRR history. And there’s more to come with the funds raised from congestion pricing – more accessible stations, modernized subway signals, and new expansion projects like Phase 2 of the Second Avenue Subway and Metro-North Penn Station Access.”
The New York Times reports the program is expected to raise $1 billion annual for public transit improvements and, according to a study, could reduce the number of vehicles entering Lower Manhattan by 17%. But the program, which could start in June, still faces six lawsuits from opponents; hearings on a suit brought by New Jersey are set for April 3-4. Uncertainty over the start of the program, and the resulting funding it would bring, have led the MTA to suspend a number of capital projects [see “MTA details projects at risk …,” Trains News Wire, Feb. 27, 2024].
More information on the congestion pricing plan is available here.
This is the ultimate “sin tax”. A tax to discourage people from buying the merchandise that is taxed. Typically alcohol or tobacco are the “sins”. But now the “sin” is driving in Manhattan.
As we know, this has been done in European city cores. Problem is, lower Manhattan is a very big place, including lots of residential.
What happens to cars just passing through from NJ to Long Island, Brooklyn, Queens or reverse? Westside highway to FDR to go around? More traffic thru Staten Island? Not as simple as London.
You know something? People don’t want to pay this fee and they won’t. Lower Manhattan ain’t got nothing you can’t find better somewhere else. Detroit’s a much better city, it’s not even a close call.
Oh yes. A quick, off the top of my head list below 60th street: Little Italy, Chinatown, the Whitney Museum, Madison Square Garden, the High Line park, Battery Park, ferry to the Statue of Liberty, the New York Public Library, Greenwich Village, Chelsea art galleries (approximately 200 of them). Gee, I think I’ll go to Detroit. According to the NYC tourism bureau, last year, some 63 million tourists visited NYC. Do you actually believe any appreciable number of them will not go because of congestion pricing?
Per Mr. Carbonetti’s points here with respect to all of the places to go “below 60th Street”, yes indeed, it sounds like there’s a lot going on (and to see) in Manhattan. As for the 60M or so annual “tourists” who visit Manhattan every year, OK fine, how many of them are actually driving into lower Manhattan and how much more are they going to have to pay to get into Manhattan to see all of these sights/tourist locations as result of this new MTA “Congestion” toll? (assuming it goes into effect, vis-à-vis legal challenges) OR, how much more will they have to pay if they use a taxi, UBER/Lyft/etc.? And businesses will have to pay more for goods delivery, etc. as a result of these tolls.
I’m not saying these “Congestion pricing” tolls are necessarily bad or aren’t warranted, BUT, there should be a nexus between the tolls collected and the benefits accrued to the users (primarily motorists, which of course raises legitimate questions about the “cross-subsidy” nature of using toll revenues to fund rail transit improvements).
Unfortunately, with this proposed congestion pricing tolls added onto the top of growing crime and dysfunction in Manhattan and greater New York City, I can’t help but wonder if this proposal will be just one more deterrent for folks who might (but won’t) visit Manhattan.
I wonder what this year’s (2024) tourism visits to NYC / lower Manhattan will be?