Most drivers would pay $15 to enter Manhattan’s central enterprise district below a plan launched by New York officers Thursday. The congestion pricing plan, which neighboring New Jersey has filed a lawsuit over, would be the first such program in america whether it is accepted by transportation officers early subsequent yr.
Beneath the plan, passenger automotive drivers getting into Manhattan south of sixtieth Avenue throughout daytime hours can be charged $15 electronically, whereas the charge for small vans can be $24 and enormous vans can be charged $36.
Cities similar to London and Stockholm have comparable packages in place, however New York Metropolis is poised to turn into the primary within the U.S.
Income from the tolls, projected to be roughly $1 billion yearly, can be used to finance borrowing to improve town’s mass transit techniques.
The proposal from the Visitors Mobility Evaluation Board, a New York state physique charged with advising the Metropolitan Transportation Authority on the tolls, contains reductions for journey between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m. and for frequent low-income drivers. Authorities automobiles similar to municipal rubbish vans can be exempt.
Taxi drivers would cross a $1.25 surcharge onto their passengers for getting into the congestion zone, whereas app-based ride-hail passengers would see a $2.50 surcharge.
Officers say that along with funding wanted transit enhancements, congestion pricing will lead to improved air high quality and diminished site visitors.
“Absent this we’re going to choking in our own traffic for a long time to come and the MTA is not going to have the funds necessary to provide quality service,” Carl Weisbrod, chair of the site visitors assessment board, mentioned in presenting the report back to MTA officers.
Opponents embody taxi drivers, who had pushed for a full exemption.
“The city has already decimated the taxi industry with years of unregulated, unchecked competition from Uber and Lyft, and the MTA seems poised to land a final blow to the prospect of stability and modest survival,” Bhairavi Desai, government director of the New York Metropolis Taxi Staff Alliance, mentioned in a information launch. “If this proposal is implemented, thousands of driver families will get dragged back into crisis-level poverty with no relief in sight.”
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy criticized the site visitors mobility board’s proposal after some information organizations reported on it Wednesday forward of its official launch.
“The Traffic Mobility Review Board’s recommended credit structure is wholly inadequate, especially the total lack of toll credits for the George Washington Bridge, which will lead to toll shopping, increased congestion in underserved communities, and excessive tolling at New Jersey crossings into Manhattan,” Murphy, who filed a federal lawsuit over congestion pricing in July, mentioned in a press release.
The MTA board will vote on the plan after a sequence of public hearings scheduled for February 2024.
