Congest pricing would push many from cars to transit

Manhattan-bound New Yorkers would be less willing to drive and much more likely to take mass transit when the MTA launches its congestion pricing program, a poll published Tuesday by NY1 and Siena College found.

The poll, which surveyed 1,000 city residents between May 22 and June 1, found 42% of respondents would drive into Manhattan less often with the launch of the scheme, which would toll motorists south of 60th St and use the revenues to fund mass transit upgrades.

When pollsters asked, “Would you use mass transit to get into and out of Manhattan if there was an added fee for driving into most of Manhattan?” some 64% of respondents answered yes.

“The poll shows exactly what congestion pricing is intended to do: get people out of their cars and onto transit,” said Lisa Daglian, executive director of the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the MTA.

“That’s good news for the MTA because people who will still drive into the congestion will be funding the transit improvements that we so desperately need for the LIRR, Metro-North and for New York City’s subways and buses,” Daglian said.

Similar programs in London, Stockholm and Singapore have reduced gridlock in busy areas while pushing commuters on to mass transit.

The findings come as the MTA struggles to get federal approval for the new tolls, which were approved by state lawmakers in 2019 with the aim of being implemented in early 2021.

Transit officials in 2020 accused officials at the Federal Highway Administration under former President Donald Trump of slow-walking the approval process.

MTA honchos last year said progress from officials under President Biden meant the tolls could launch by the end of 2023. But agency Chairman Janno Lieber last month said the program could be delayed even further because his employees are struggling to answer a list of 430 questions and comments submitted by the feds in March on the impact of the tolls.