MTA approves congestion pricing plan
NEW YORK — New York is set to become the first U.S. city to charge congestion tolls to drivers after the Metropolitan Transportation Authority approved a $15 fee for most motorists headed south of 60th Street in Manhattan.
Members of the MTA board on Wednesday voted 11-1 to green-light the proposal with only minor changes to the plan presented in December by the Traffic Mobility Review Board, a New York state body that advised the MTA on the tolls.
The plan will charge a base fare of $15 on cars traveling south of 60th Street in Manhattan during daytime hours. It is expected to go into effect in June, though it faces multiple lawsuits that seek to stop it.
Tolls are higher — between $24-$36 — for buses and trucks and just $7.50 for motorcycles. Latenight entries, low-income drivers and for-hire vehicles get discounts, while low-income residents in the area covered by the tolls are eligible for a tax credit.
Fees are also reduced for commuters who pay Lincoln Tunnel and Holland Tunnel tolls. But the plan does not include discounts for the George Washington, Robert F. Kennedy and Henry Hudson bridges — paid crossings that don’t directly enter the toll zone and which are heavily used by commuters north of Manhattan.
Gov. Kathy Hochul supports the congestion pricing plan and has previously said it would make New York City a global leader in transportation policy by lowering emissions and easing gridlock. Other supporters say it will push more people to use public transport, reduce congestion for public buses and emergency vehicles, lower
pollution, and raise money needed to improve the city’s subway system.
But the plan has faced some pushback, especially from lawmakers in the Hudson Valley and New Jersey whose constituencies include tens of thousands of commuters into New York City.
Earlier this year, a bipartisan group of upstate officials joined a federal lawsuit filed by the United Federation of Teachers that seeks to block the plan. The lawmakers contend congestion pricing would disproportionately affect Hudson Valley commuters who do not have adequate public transportation alternatives to driving into Manhattan.
Part of their claim is that drivers’ actual costs could be double the $15-a-day base fare because of existing bridge tolls that must be paid before entering the congestion zone.
State Sen. James Skoufis, a Democrat representing nearly all of Orange County, said in February that the toll would be “outright theft” for commuters from Orange and Rockland counties who have limited public transportation options into New York City. Earlier this month,
Skoufis included a proposal in the Senate budget to give Orange County commuters a toll discount for the Gov. Mario M. Cuomo Bridge.
The state of New Jersey also filed a lawsuit in July to strike down the toll plan. Both lawsuits are pending.
On Wednesday evening, Skoufis released a terse, four-word statement in response to the MTA’S vote: “See you in court.”
The vote comes nearly five years after the state Legislature approved congestion pricing, mandating that it should raise $1 billion per year to fund public subway and bus systems for New York City’s 4 million daily riders. The pandemic and lack of federal regulation stalled the project.
Last July, the MTA projected it would have a balanced budget through 2027 based in part on fare increases. The agency had previously warned of a fiscal cliff heading into 2023, with a projected $600 million deficit.
“Today’s vote is one of the most significant the board has ever undertaken, and the MTA is ready,” MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber said in a statement.