“Instead of burdening drivers further, the MTA should acknowledge that our industry has for years already paid them a congestion pricing fee and focus on ensuring the program is funded fairly across all who use our roadways.”Ī spokesperson for Uber declined to comment.įor the first five years of the program, E-ZPass drivers making less than $50,000 a year would get a 25% discount starting on their 11th trip within a calendar month. “The MTA’s solution for rideshare would be an infeasible logistical nightmare,” a spokesperson for Lyft said in an emailed statement. Passenger cars, taxis and for-hire vehicles like Uber and Lyft would only be charged once a day. But the final environmental assessment includes concessions. Drivers using an E-ZPass may pay as much as $23 during peak hours and $17 during off-peak periods. Those funds will help finance major capital projects like expanding the Second Avenue Subway to Harlem, updating the subway signal system and adding more elevators and escalators to stations to make them accessible.Ī six-member Traffic Mobility Review Board will determine the specific tolling structure and discounts or exemptions. MTA officials expect congestion pricing to bring in $1 billion in new revenue a year that the agency will bond against to raise $15 billion. “Congestion pricing means less traffic, cleaner air, safer streets, better transit,” Janno Lieber, the MTA’s chief executive officer, said during a media briefing about the plan on Thursday. With the revenue generated by the proposed congestion pricing - forecast at about $1 billion a year - transit service could be improved to attract riders lost during the pandemic, he added.The transit agency anticipates the US Department of Transportation will give final approval after a 30-day public review period, a significant milestone that will allow construction to begin on the tolling gantries. “Transit is at a crucial turning point,” said Danny Pearlstein with the Riders Alliance. But remote work, ongoing health concerns and some high-profile instances of transit violence have all taken tolls on ridership, which stands at about 60% of pre-pandemic levels. Of course, most - when they do go in - take public transit, not cars. New Yorkers have longer-than-average commutes. “If you’re an employer, this just creates another hurdle that you have to overcome.” A Manhattan congestion charge probably isn’t going to help, Kropp said. And building security company Kastle shows office occupancy in the city leveling off at around 40%. The business group Partnership for New York City says only 8% of office workers are going in full time. Offices in New York have some of the lowest worker return rates in the country, he said. “The question of commuting to work and whether or not it makes sense to go into the office place has actually become a really big reason why people don’t,” said Brian Kropp, who leads human resources research at Gartner. It’s that last part - not taking trips at all - that might be a problem. “People reschedule their trips, or take them by a different mode, or don’t take them at all,” he said. And once it’s full, you have to wait for the system to clear out before you can use it.”Ĭharging tolls to use roads, like charging the market price for bread, disincentivizes crowding. “We have all of this stuff, we make it available to people for free, people line up to use it, it gets full. Matthew Turner, an economist at Brown University, likes to explain how congestion pricing works by comparing how we treat roads to a bread line. The area includes midtown and the financial district, the same geography that businesses and city leaders are struggling to lure office workers back to. New York’s plan could take effect as early as next year, with tolls as high as $23 to drive into Manhattan below 60th Street during peak hours. Known as congestion pricing, this strategy to reduce car traffic - and all the bad stuff that comes with it - is already in practice in London, Singapore and Stockholm. Residents of New York City have been expressing themselves - as only New Yorkers can - at a series of public hearings considering the city’s plan to charge motorists a toll to drive in Manhattan’s central business district.
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