New York transit leaders approve nation’s first congestion pricing program – GWC Mag

Dive Brief:

• The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority Board voted 11-1 today to approve the toll rates for the nation’s first congestion pricing plan, setting the stage for the MTA to begin collecting tolls under the state’s Central Business District Tolling Program.
• New York’s congestion pricing program will charge most vehicles entering Manhattan south of and including 60th Street. Excluded from tolling will be traffic on Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive, the West Side Highway and the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel connection to West Street.
• The plan exempts emergency vehicles, certain vehicles transporting people with disabilities, commuter, transit and some school buses, and public-works government vehicles.

Dive Insight:

The New York state legislature directed the MTA to develop and run the CBD tolling program in 2019 and the Federal Highway Administration last year finalized an environmental assessment of the program, allowing it to proceed. The MTA conducted public meetings in 2021 and completed a public comment period on March 11, but is mired in lawsuits and opposition from some New York and New Jersey politicians, the Staten Island borough president, the United Federation of Teachers and others.

“We look forward to implementation, and for the MTA to track the program’s traffic, revenue, and environmental effects in a transparent manner — the program should evolve as conditions require,” said Regional Plan Association President and CEO Tom Wright and Executive Vice President Kate Slevin in a statement. 

Under the plan approved today, passenger vehicles and small commercial vehicles using an E-ZPass tag will be charged $15 from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. weekdays and 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekends. At night, the fee will drop to $3.75. Vehicles will only be charged once per day, and those without an E-ZPass tag will face tolls that are about 50% higher.

Drivers may be eligible for a 50% discount after 10 trips in a calendar month if their household federal adjusted gross income is less than $50,000 or they receive federal assistance through programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program.

Rates differ for other vehicles. Trucks and non-exempt buses will pay a toll of $24 or $36 during the day, depending on size and function, and $6 or $9 at night. Taxi passengers will be charged $1.25 per trip to, from or within the tolling district, while riders in app-based ride-hailing vehicles will be charged $2.50 per trip.

Several taxi drivers opposed the tolling plan during the March 27 meeting’s public comment period. “I wish this were a historic day of good proportion but it feels more like a historic day of infamy,” New York Taxi Workers Alliance Executive Director Bhairavi Desai said, insisting that taxis “don’t cause the congestion.”

Speaking in favor of the tolling plan, Lisa Daglian, executive director of the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the MTA, said at the meeting, “This is a victory for the millions of us who rely on transit every day and for our region’s economy.”

Several people with disabilities also spoke in favor of the program. Funding from the program is essential to the MTA’s ability to make its subway stations more accessible, according to a January report by the NYU Rudin Center for Transportation. “We need the congestion pricing to move on forward to the future of accessibility,” said one commenter.

Revenues from the congestion pricing program are expected to allow the transit agency to secure about $15 billion in bonds to support its capital investment program. 

But the MTA will have to contend with multiple lawsuits against the tolling plan. Plaintiffs include the state of New Jersey and civil rights organizations, including the A. Philip Randolph Institute, the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists and the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement, along with residents of the Lower East Side in Manhattan and some small business owners. In addition, 18 elected officials joined the federal lawsuit filed by the United Federation of Teachers.

“Riders won congestion pricing and have defended it from five years of baseless attacks,” said Riders Alliance Policy and Communications Director Danny Pearlstein in an email statement. “It’s time to end the culture war demagoguery, drop the lawsuits, and get with the decongestion program.”

Tolling could begin as soon as late May or June, MTA Chair Janno Lieber said in a Jan. 8 interview on WNYC, noting that the lawsuits first need to be resolved.