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UPDATE, Friday, 8:30p.m.: On Thursday afternoon, THE CITY ran a story with more details about how the congestion pricing program will work, and what President-elect Trump can do about it. Hochul held a press conference stating that motorists driving south of 60th Street in Manhattan will begin paying a once-daily $9 toll on Jan. 5. Read it — HERE.
Original Story
By Jose Martinez, THE CITY
Gov. Kathy Hochul on Thursday will revive plans to launch the country’s first congestion pricing program — at a reduced once-a-day toll rate of $9, multiple sources told THE CITY.
Five months after Hochul paused the Central Business District Tolling Program before its long-planned June 30 launch, sources said she will reverse course by announcing that motorists will be tolled south of 60th Street in Manhattan by late December.
“Governor Hochul paused congestion pricing because a daily $15 toll was too much for hard-working New Yorkers in this economic climate,” Avi Small, a Hochul spokesperson, said in a statement Wednesday evening. “[On Thursday] the Governor will announce the path forward to fund mass transit, unclog our streets and improve public health by reducing air pollution.”
Hochul’s latest about-face comes after voters in last week’s presidential race elected former President Donald Trump, who has vowed to “TERMINATE Congestion Pricing in my FIRST WEEK back in office.”
Since Trump was granted a return to the White House, transit and environmental advocates have repeatedly called on Hochul to implement congestion pricing, saying it’s now or never for a vehicle-tolling plan designed to raise billions of dollars for MTA capital improvements and reduce traffic in what studies show is the most congested urban area in the country.
“I hope it moves forward at this point, but our message all along has been that you’ve got to fund transit,” Joseph Rappaport, executive director of Brooklyn Center for Independence of the Disabled, told THE CITY. “If you do it one way, fine. If you do it another way, fine.
“But you need to just do it.”
Hochul’s June pause of a years-in-the-making vehicle-tolling plan created a $16.5 billion funding gap in the MTA’s current five year capital program, which carries a price tag of more than $50 billion. The transit agency’s board in July instead approved a pared-back budget that included delaying signal upgrades on several subway lines, deferring elevator installations at 23 stations and the purchase of new subway cars and 250 electric buses.
The sudden shift led to repeated protests against Hochul, who then in August pledged to come up with an alternative plan to congestion pricing by the end of 2024 — as MTA officials repeatedly said they would take the governor “at her word.”
Hochul’s last-second turn also spawned lawsuits from environmental and transit advocates seeking to put congestion pricing back on track and also put into question the state’s commitment to fund $155 million in environmental mitigation work in “communities already overburdened by pre-existing air pollution and chronic diseases” as a result of vehicle emissions.
Multiple sources said MTA board members will be briefed this week on the latest iteration of congestion pricing, with a $9 base toll that was among the scenarios that were initially floated as options.
The $9 base toll could eventually be increased, the sources said.
“Starting at $9 — which was studied in the environmental assessment — and increasing it over time is the right way to approach this,” Tom Wright, president and chief executive of the Regional Plan Association, told THE CITY. “Over 29 years, London has revised their system about 10 times, so it’s not just going to be set in amber and concrete for a decade.”
The $9 revival was first reported by Politico.
‘Game On’
London, Stockholm and Singapore are among the international cities that turned to tolling vehicles in their urban core, but the road to congestion pricing in New York has been filled with potholes.
“The problem has been a lack of leadership and vision on what we’re doing and why,” Nicholas Klein, assistant professor of city and regional planning at Cornell University, told THE CITY.
Klein cited how, in 2003, London’s then-mayor, Ken Livingstone, pushed through a congestion charge in the city.
First proposed 17 years ago by then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg, congestion pricing failed in Albany in 2008. State lawmakers approved another version of it in 2019, but the plan has faced resistance from motorists, New Jersey politicians and Hochul and her predecessor as governor, Andrew Cuomo.
Congestion pricing is also facing multiple lawsuits from across the Hudson River — and New Jersey Rep. Josh Gottheimer, a chief opponent of the plan, vowed to continue pushing against what he labeled an “utterly absurd” move to hit residents of The Garden State with new fees for driving into the city.
“We stopped the Congestion Tax once and we’ll stop it again,” Gottheimer said in a statement Wednesday evening. “Game on.”
Transit worker union leaders have also been critical of a tolling plan that is “all stick and no carrot,” saying that without additional service outside of Manhattan, not enough drivers will swap their vehicles for mass transit.
“If the MTA doesn’t invest in new service, then the toll reduction is still a political quagmire,” John Samuelsen, international president of the Transport Workers Union and a MTA board member, told THE CITY.
Congestion pricing has been counted on to provide up to $15 billion in funding for the MTA’s current five-year capital program. But officials have conceded that nearly half funding for the agency’s new $68.4 billion plan for 2025-2029 is no sure thing. The next capital plan focuses mostly on keeping the 120-year-old subway system in safe and working condition.
Transit advocates whose organizations sued Hochul over what she called an indefinite pause of congestion pricing said they are eager to hear more from the governor on how the revived plan will work.
“In this new era, New York leaders must govern with more courage than ever before,” Betsy Plum, executive director of Riders Alliance, said in a statement. “If she moves forward, Governor Hochul will demonstrate the kind of leadership that we will need in abundance and which riders will continue to demand from her.”
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Watch Trump push congress to pass a bill funding the MTA but in exchange for that funding, they will have to scrap congestion pricing. This way Hochul saves face and Trump saves face all while we have made cars a culture war issue and we are worse off for it.
Trump said he is going to cut off all federal funds to MTA if this passes.
He can threaten to do it, or he can give funding to the MTA to make everyone look good. Who knows what was said on that phone call between Trump and Hochul.
Finally – this ‘delay’ was very clumsy of Hochul, CP should have just been implemented as planned in June but better late than never. I hope the $9 fare is enough to incentivize drivers to take the train, otherwise we may not see a significant dip in congestion.
And the prices of your grocery purchases will go up even more. If costs more to bring it in, it will cost the purchaser more.
Wake up
You should consider the math on a $9 fare spread over a truck full of groceries less the labor/fuel savings from less time spent stuck in traffic.
Truck pricing for trucks that deliver essential things, like your food, is not $9, it’s $21.60. Does anyone actually read the bill?
Please do not espouse common sense.
This will not result in less congestion or faster response times. it will not make the streets safer. It will also not fix the mismanagement at the MTA. Prior to the app-based companies Uber/Lyft there were approximately 13k yellow taxis and 10k black cars. Today there are 13k yellow taxis and approximately 78k uber/lyft cars!!! These are the same companies that support congestion pricing, make political contributions to the supporters of the program and pay for the astro-turfed groups that loudly advocate for this. Their vehicles will be exempt and instead charge customers a surcharge.
If we really want to reduce traffic then reduce the number of bike lanes and reduce the number of these app based vehicles that operate in NYC.
Wait. Why would Uber and Lyft be exempt?
they’re not banning cars, if people really need to get downtown with a car they’ll pay, just like how people who really need a cab service will use that instead of public transit. i’m also curious why you think bike lanes are bad? in my experience it’s sometimes quicker to travel on bikes than it is to be on public transit, because the traffic is so congested. cars are also the main cause of accidents and fatalities on the road, not bikes.
The MTA is fine with bikes because they do not like providing bus service. If you see the history of bus service, it was the MTA forced into providing bus service.
Bike advocates killed their credibility on street safety with e-bikes.
Eugene Nickerson,
It seems that parallel to the City’s growth of bike lanes and Citibike, that the MTA has reduced bus service (reduced bus frequency, bus routes, bus stops.)
Buses that used to run every few minutes now run every 15 minutes or more. Buses like the M5 were cut so now must take 2 buses that used to be just one bus ride.
Or cut bus stops. For example, the MTA removed the M34 bus stop at Lexington & 34th (westbound)!
Further, City DOT is harming bus riders by implementing Open Streets on bus routes.
City DOT is really pushing the use of bicycles.
Bus service in NYC used to be much more frequent decades ago.
Now the next battle, which will probably take beyond my lifetime (I’m 77) will be residential parking permits. I’m in favor of anything which makes it more difficult to drive in Manhattan. In fact, it should be a privilege, not a right. Auto transport should be for delivery of goods, and for people with disabled passes. Not weallthy people who have their driver wait in their car with the AC running while they shop.
Yes, the 4 wealthy people whose drivers are waiting for them with the AC on while they shop are causing the congestion.
Not the blocking of “the box” and lack of any real traffic enforcement across the city. Not the double and triple parked delivery trucks and cars, because the amazingly smart planners are taking their sweet time developing unloading zone solutions – even as the the dining sheds come down and present the perfect opportunity. Not the constant blocking of streets for all kinds of commercial and “community” purposes like Open Streets. Not other nonsense like police precincts using the streets to literally store crashed and impounded cars – some of them on prime UWS streets.
It’s just the wealthy people.
Certainly the wealthy in their SUVs every day around 3pm outside Columbia Grammar that brings CPW to a standstill. Should all be ticketed
and don’t forget about the fact that there are now over 80,000 additional vehicles on city streets since the advent of Uber and Lyft….
Thank you “Not the Real UWSDad” the negative effect of Uber/Lyft on traffic is ignored by the media.
We need residential parking permits now! We can’t allow the UWS to become a giant parking lot for out-of-town commuters.
It basically already is, close to half the cars parked on my block have NJ plates and quite a few of them have illegal license plate covers as well….
and there will be even more people from NJ parking on the UWS because of congetion pricing.
How many of those NJ plates are those who work in the area? The basic reality is that every time NJ spends money on transit, it is losing income tax revenue to NY as there is no tax reciprocity. There is no real incentive to force people in NJ to use transit unless you want to provoke them into not coming here.
Also residential parking permits will not be the silver bullet people who drive think it is, if anything it will be weaponized to make the UWS into a defacto gated community.
There are not enough parking spots for every apartment dweller to a have a residential patking permit. If i had a redidentisl parking permit i would buy a car which i dont have
Only 24% of UWS households own cars, but many more access the UWS by car as the UWS is not Midtown.
Just when people were going back to work and tourism was coming back, this extra tax will now be the death knell. This will keep people home.
Comments like this ignore that the vast vast majority of workers and tourists are taking the subway or train into Manhattan. Congestion pricing helps to fund the MTA and make transportation smoother for everyone. $9 a day is less than what it would cost two people to take the subway in/out of the city so its hardly an unreasonable cost.
The way the bill is written the MTA can raise the toll every year unrestricted to a certain percentage. Toll will be over 20 next go around.
I hope so! $9 is far too low, the board set a reasonable $15 before Hochul incompetently interfered
Conversely NYC is perceived by monied interests as successful enough in attracting transplants that they do not care where someone outside of gentrified NYC does not come into Manhattan at all. Sure NY is losing people, but there are enough Sara’s and Becky’s from Illinois or Wisconsin to replace the families leaving, especially in a more white collar city. Not only that, they can have a cycle of Sara’s and Becky’s and employers benefit since they do not have to provide paid family leave and the city benefits as it is less of a strain on schools.
Congestion pricing is being used to replace money lost in the subway due to out-of-control fare beating. Paying your fare is almost nonexistent at some stations and costs the MTA Billions. A useful idea would be to have subway riders pay their fair share rather that have the subway funded by people who don’t use it. We clearly need a Govenor who is able to identify the cause of a problem and fix it instead of more of the same shell game nonsense, New Yorkers have accepted as leadership for too long.
Didn’t Cyrus Vance Jr as DA stop prosecuting fare beaters on the grounds that penalties would fall disproportionately?
Please do not espouse common sense.
WONDERFUL! I say this as a longtime upper west sider who bikes, drives a car, and takes the subway. I’m all in!
Shouldnt bikes have to pay this toll also for entering midtown?
So basically Hochul, at the 11th hour, wasted 6 months figuring out that knocking the opener toll to single digits was a better fit for her. I’m done.
Is Hochul’s resurrection of this dumb policy part of her “resistance” strategy against the incoming Trump administration?
More like, let’s not piss off our voters before the election, we can afford to wait a few months and do that after. Regardless of election outcome.
The Yellow cabs already charge a $2.50 congestion pricing charge and have been for a while. I recall coming home from my son-in-law’s funeral in January 2023 and the taxi, which picked us up at the airport at 1:30AM, charged us for congestion pricing. Where is the congestion at 1:30AM.
My husband is 84 and 100% disabled Vietnam Veteran, and I am 76. Due to the “sanctuary city” ruling and the non-prosecution of, not only migrant criminals, but home grown ones as well, we do not take subways. How much more does this city and state want to bleed us financially?
If the pols want to make NYC like Europe, will the citizens want to pay the same tax rates European countries charge their citizens as well? Most are charging over 50% in taxes per person.
Since this is triggered at 60th street, I have major concerns about the influx of traffic/people leaving their cars in the UWS as a result of this to bypass this congestion.
Leaving them where? At all the available daytime spots that don’t exist? The city can step up parking enforcement and generate some additional dollars.
Who wants to sit for alternate side from 11 am to 12:30 pm?
I think one thing we can all agree on is that Hochul has little chance of being re-elected governor.
Non-driver here and subway and bus rider.
But important to note a few things:
Most vehicles in midtown are commercial – service, construction, delivery, ecommerce and Uber.
(BTW – quite a lot of ecommerce delivery by gig workers using personal cars)
Commuters who drive in include many Non-Rich people – building maintenance, security guards, hospital workers, night shift, FDNY etc.
(Rich people are more likely to be able to work remotely)
examples:
https://nypost.com/2024/11/14/us-news/meet-the-doorman-waitress-taxi-driver-and-other-nyc-commuters-who-could-be-forced-to-pay-more-than-2k-in-congestion-pricing-tolls/
The devil is in the details on this. If someone enters through the Lincoln Tunnel, which dumps you into the restricted area, do they also pay the $9, having already paid a tunnel toll? Are there exceptions/different rates for certain groups?
I am not a big fan of this plan. I think there is already congestion pricing with all of the bridge and tunnel tolls. Add tolls to the crossings that don’t already have them (perhaps with lower tolls for NYC residents).
I do agree that we should put in residential parking permits to prevent our neighborhood from becoming a bigger parking lot than it already is. Though they must be certain to have plenty of metered parking as well as making permits available to those who work in the neighborhood – a lot of small business owners, teachers, doormen, etc. work here but don’t live here and should not be penalized.
It is important to realize congestion is one thing but cars and trucks bring into the City
all goods and services. If not then the HiLine
will have to reopen to get mdse and goods into our City
I’m all for congestion pricing if it goes to subsidize the cost of public transport. When I lived on Long Island I would have used the train if the fares had been cheaper. For four to travel to the city cost more than the parking so I drove in. Fares have to be slashed for people to give up driving in.
Congestion taxes should have stayed at $12 and don’t reduce tolls into the city either.. There should also be a tax on gas that goes right to public transportation fare reduction.
Way to reduce traffic!!!
This is nuts – it should NEVER be cheaper to drive into the city than take public transportation.
4 LIRR fares vs. parking. What about gas and depreciation? No one ever considers depreciation, which is a real cost. And the LIRR is consistently more efficient than driving in from LI except maybe from 10 PM to 5 AM.
The LIRR to anywhere other than Midtown is NOT consistently more efficient than driving outside of the height of rush hour. Not only that, the LIRR is the worst run of the MTA agencies and their employees have openly told customers that if they are unhappy with the service they provide, they should go drive. Imagine if MTA NYC Transit openly told UWS residents that if they are unhappy with the bus and subway service provided that they should go take uber? Gale Brewer’s office would be flooded with angry constituent emails.
This is not good people. Every delivery truck, employees etc will now have to pay these fees and they will all be passed onto us. The cost of everything will now be increased.
If I read one more story about a doorman who drives to work and will now have to pay the fee, I’ll scream. So take the train or bus or subway like everyone else.
Can we at least give this a try, people? The gantries are up, the plan has been hashed out endlessly. The fee is now much more reasonable. It HAS worked in other cities. This city IS a traffic nightmare. Stop whining. Maybe it’ll actually work. Sheesh.
Agree…I don’t understand why so many posters put their doormen and porters on a pedestal. Why should they be exempt above all other workers who drive into the City?
and what about the police, who all drive in from Mahopac? will they have to pay congestion pricing, too?
No one should have to pay a fee. You need these doormen for “safety” yet you want them to struggle more than they already do.
This is very obviously a cash grab by the city to fund the MTA. It will not lead to a meaningful drop in traffic. A few percentage points, sure. But nothing beyond that.
If NYC really wanted to end congestion in Manhattan, they should have done two things:
1. Cap the number of of Uber/Lyft/etc. vehicles. There are nearly 80K of them in addition to the yellow cabs. The explosion of rideshares is what led to the insane traffic we’ve been seeing the past decade.
2. End free street parking in Manhattan. Make it as onerous and expensive to own a car in Manhattan. If you’d like to keep and drive a car, moving to the other, more spacious, boroughs is always an option.
The city did none of that. This silly little tax will be an annoyance, nothing more.
Yes, if they wanted to reduce congestion, they would RAISE the price, not lower it.
Ending street parking in Manhattan will do nothing but make Manhattan into a college campus. This is a city where people live, work and do business. Manhattan is a place where certain kinds of people even feel safer to some extent than more conservative areas. Meeting people where they are at with transportation is essential to keeping that.
The amount of people not paying fares on buses and subways is INSANE. Every time I take a bus with side doors, 5 people in front of me walk right past the OMNI. And we all see the subway jumpers.
I always take public transit and it infuriates me that the MTA and this city do nothing to change the fare beating happening every single day. So this congestion pricing is needed to help fund the MTA who are inept and no official does ANYTHING to keep the Ubers in check.
The bike lobby (TransAlt, Open Plans, Streetsblog) of course strongly supports CP.
Interestingly, the chief leadership of the bike lobby, Mark Gorton was on RFK’s presidential bid team.
It makes sense to implement it now. If Hocul waits, Trump will see that it’s killed. This way three things can happen: (1) it can continue at $9:00; (2) the toll can be adjusted, up or down; or (3) it can be discontinued. Why not see how it works?
The media and political folks will not let congestion pricing go. Just like with bail reform and e-bikes, it will be an albatross around politicians necks.
This will not be good for Lincoln Center area. We will turn into a transfer area and turn around like the boarder around London’s tolling area. Traffic will increase as cars avoid midtown and our cross town will become a parking lot. If they want to toll should be all of Manhattan that way unavoidable and wont congest other areas.
Outside of peak rush hour, the travel time using the LIRR to get to or from Long Island and then transferring to the subway to access or leave the UWS is the same or longer than driving from the UWS direct to and from your destination. I have take trips between the UWS and parts of Long Island in 50 minutes driving that would take over 90 minutes using the subway and the LIRR and then finding my way from the LIRR station to my final destination.
Hopefully this will end some of the traffic congestion. speeding times for emergency vehicles to get to the emergencies and hospitals.
anyone ever due a study of how many deaths are caused by traffic congest ion? and property damage?
i cannot even imagine how the UWS will
be congested and a mess!
Has anyone researched the negative effects
in London when they did it and ultimately
abolished the program
I am curious