New York –
New York’s new toll for drivers entering midtown Manhattan debuted Sunday, meaning many people will pay $9 to access the busiest part of the Big Apple during rush hour.
The toll, known as congestion pricing, aims to reduce traffic gridlock in the densely populated city while raising money to help repair its crumbling public transportation infrastructure.
Drivers of most passenger cars will pay $9 to enter Manhattan south of Central Park Monday through Friday between 5 a.m. and 9 p.m. and on weekends between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. After hours labor, the toll will be US$2.25 for most vehicles.
After years of study, delays and a last-ditch attempt by New Jersey to stop the toll, the program launched without major setbacks early Sunday morning. But transit officials warned that the scheme, a first in the country, could require adjustments and would probably not be put to the test for the first time until the work week.
“This is a tolling system that has never been tried before in terms of complexity,” Metropolitan Transportation Authority President and CEO Janno Lieber said at a news conference at Grand Central Terminal on Sunday. “We don’t expect New Yorkers to change their behavior overnight. “Everyone will have to adapt to this.”
The fee, which varies for motorcyclists, truck drivers and ride-sharing apps, will be collected by electronic toll collection systems at more than 100 screening sites now spread across the lower half of Manhattan.
It adds to the tolls drivers pay to cross various bridges and tunnels to reach the city, although there will be a credit of up to $3 for those who have already paid to enter Manhattan through certain tunnels during rush hour. .
On Sunday morning, hours after the toll was activated, traffic was moving quickly along the northern edge of the congestion zone at 60th Street and 2nd Avenue. Many motorists seemed unaware that the newly activated cameras, placed along the arm of a steel gantry above the street, would soon send a new load to their EZ Passes.
“Are you kidding me?” said Chris Smith, a real estate agent from Somerville, New Jersey, as he drove against traffic under cameras, evading the charge. “Whose idea was it? Kathy Hochul? “She should be arrested for being ignorant.”
Meanwhile, some local residents and transit users said they were hopeful the program would reduce bottlenecks and frequent honking in their neighborhoods, while also helping to modernize the subway system.
“I think the idea would be good to try to minimize the amount of traffic and try to encourage people to use public transportation,” said Phil Bauer, a surgeon who lives in midtown Manhattan, describing the constant noise of traffic in his neighborhood as “pretty brutal.”
President-elect Donald Trump, a Republican, has promised to end the program when he takes office, but it is unclear whether he will follow through. The plan had stalled during his first term while awaiting a federal environmental review.
In November, Trump, whose namesake Trump Tower sits in the toll zone, said congestion pricing “will put New York City at a disadvantage against competing cities and states, and businesses will flee.”
Lieber, the MTA chief, said he wasn’t overly concerned that the president-elect would succeed in undoing the program, even if he followed through with it. “I think you understand what traffic is doing to our city living on 59th and 5th Avenue,” Lieber said Sunday.
Other big cities around the world, including London and Stockholm, have similar congestion pricing schemes, but it’s a first in the U.S. Proponents of the idea note that the programs were largely unpopular when they were first implemented. , and gained approval when the public felt benefits like faster buses. Speeds and less traffic.
In New York City, even some public transportation users expressed skepticism of a plan aimed at raising much-needed funds for the subway system.
“Based on my experience with the MTA and where they allocated their funds in the past, they did a pretty poor job of it,” Christakis Charalambides, a fashion industry supervisor, said while waiting for the subway Sunday morning. in Lower Manhattan. “I don’t know if I necessarily believe it until I actually see something.”
The toll was supposed to go into effect last year with a $15 fee, but Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul abruptly paused the program ahead of the 2024 elections, when congressional elections in suburban areas around the city, the epicenter of opposition to the program, were suspended. considered vital to his party’s effort to regain control of Congress.
Shortly after the election, Hochul restarted the plan with the lowest toll, $9. She denies there were politics at play and said she thought the original $15 charge was too much, although she had openly supported the program before stopping it.
Congestion pricing also survived several lawsuits seeking to block the program, including a last-ditch effort by the state of New Jersey to have a judge place a temporary roadblock against it. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, has vowed to continue fighting the plan.
In response, Lieber described the New Jersey governor’s views as the “definition of hypocrisy,” adding that he hoped the state would adjust its strategy after “losing again and again and again” in court.
