Mayor Bill de Blasio called on state officials Thursday to enact congestion pricing by next year.
He urged the MTA to put its long-delayed plan to charge drivers entering Manhattan below 60th Street in place by July 2022.
“It’s time for the state to get in gear, get congestion pricing done,” de Blasio said during a morning press conference.
The new tolls were slated to go into effect in January 2021, but the plan was held up by the Trump administration and delayed by COVID-19. The Biden administration has since given the MTA the go-ahead to conduct an environmental assessment of the plan.
The agency must complete this assessment before the plan can move forward and de Blasio said it has been dragging its feet. He wants the MTA to expedite the assessment.
The congestion pricing plan could generate $15 billion over four years for much-needed capital improvements to the New York transit system.
The fees to enter the congestion pricing zone could be around $11 to $14 for cars and $25 for trucks during peak business hours, state leaders previously told the New York Times. However, the actual figures will be set by the Traffic Mobility Review Board, a six-person panel created in 2019.
De Blasio, on Thursday, announced the he had appointed Sherif Soliman, the Department of Finance Commissioner, to that board. The board members are officially appointed by the MTA, with the requirement that one member is recommended by the mayor, one member resides in the Long Island Rail Road region, and one member resides in the Metro North region.
The mayor said the subway system desperately needs the money for repairs and upgrades as people begin to return to their workplace and school this fall.
“We cannot have a full recovery without the MTA getting stronger,” he said. “The MTA needs to get it together because right now we’re seeing too many problems.”
The program would also help reduce traffic congestion in busy sections of Manhattan, improve air quality and boost public transit ridership.
“The pandemic caused a different problem — lots of people turning back to their cars,” de Blasio said. “We’ve got to stop that because that’s caused congestion on the streets, more pollution, it’s bad for the climate.”
There have also been too many car crashes as well, he added.
“We’ve got to get people out of the cars,” de Blasio said. “Again, the solution [is to] get people back to mass transit, to make mass transit better — that means congestion pricing.”
15 comments:
If you think de Blasio is bad wait for the next set of clowns !
It should have been brought in 20 years ago at least.
It's ALL about MONEY with these ROTTEN Politicians!!!
STOP Taxing New Yorkers!!!
Tax the Tourists, illegal immigrants, the Hedge Fund Managers, the Stock Brokers, the Ceos, the Board of Directors who frequent the strip clubs and pay hundreds of thousands for prostitutes!!!
Tax the Shooters, the illegal gun owners, Tax those out on the streets because of Bail Reform!!!
And you think its bad now with all the out of state plates that don't come back to anything, all the paper temp plates, and all the bent and unreadable plates? Just wait till this passes. No one is going to have a legit readable plate going past these congestion pricing cameras.
Could this put an end to car driver rage and violence ?
And they called Trump a Nazi...
Tax all car owners for every mile they drive multiplied by the size of their vehicle's engine. If they want to pollute the air and kill pedestrians, then they should pay for the privilege.
https://sunnysidepost.com/woman-killed-after-being-struck-by-hit-and-run-driver-and-mowed-over-by-mta-bus-in-middle-village
https://sunnysidepost.com/16-year-old-cyclist-dies-days-after-being-struck-by-hit-and-run-driver-in-college-point
https://sunnysidepost.com/alleged-drunk-driver-faces-up-to-15-years-in-prison-for-fatal-hit-and-run-of-nypd-officer
https://sunnysidepost.com/nypd-officer-killed-by-hit-and-run-drunk-driver-on-lie-in-queens
https://sunnysidepost.com/lyft-driver-killed-by-suspected-drunk-driver-in-maspeth-sunday
Have to find ways to pay for the new Undocumented Democrats !
You're not understanding the trail of willful, intentional corruption and graft, people. It's NEVER going to get any better, because corruption has been accepted as a way of life in this city of politicians that are filthier and dirtier than a gas station toilet.
Case in point: I just had to strenuously explain the law to the illegal alien who lives around the corner from me whose 'micro rental space' consists of a basement apartment of a single family home with three other people, all of whom own three separate cars, which is why so many of my neighbors have been forced to holding parking spaces with cones and garbage cans. His argument? 'It's ILLEGAL to hold spaces with traffic cones,' to which I reminded him that it's ILLEGAL for an ILLEGAL ALIEN like HIMSELF to be living in an ILLEGAL and ILLEGALLY CONVERTED basement apartment which is the 'Cause' part of the 'Cause & Effect' that has directly resulted in overcrowding in our small town community that has directly led to other illegal activitues like traffic cones, as city government stooges look the other way from policy enforcement for six decades, and counting.
So, this illegal individual just stared back at me quizzically (like I was headless!), not understanding my theory, much less any part of my full sentences in English that clearly stated my justified complaint.
The lesson here is to: GET OUT, and to do it FAST, if you ever wish to live peacefully with sane and ACCOUNTABLE policies that are strictly enforced. It's as simple as that, folks because this criminally insane, intentionally overpopulated DemonRat padded cell of a city (and to a marginally lesser degree state of selective and occasional policy enforcement), will eat you alive physically, emotionally and cerebrally - to zombie-burnout effect.
There is nothing healthy about living in a profoundly sick metropolis, overrun by sycophantic, establishment-rigged politicians whose very lives and paychecks are beholden to the maelstrom of corruption, graft and greed that they themselves continually foist, to beneficially self-serving effect, with impunity, all of which didn't previously exist.
Never fight a system that was built to destroy its objectors, challengers and aggrieved residents. You will never win; the system was DESIGNED THAT WAY.
TAX the UNLICENSED Drivers who drive their Unregistered Vehicles with Fake License Plates!
You will be surprise how much money can be made from those who refuse to get Licensed and follow the rules of the road!!!
TAX the prostitutes roaming the streets of East New York, Brooklyn.
You know...the part Brooklyn Borough President, Eric Adams often ignores and pretends nothing illegal is going on in the borough he represents.
Drive baby drive!!!
No one takes there car to the City cause parking itself can be 50+$ . and Dunkin Donut Delivery cant be done thru Mass transit. so that cost will be pass down to the consumer.
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