New York City could impose a congestion charge on motorists driving into Manhattan’s busiest streets—and could do it with or without state approval, an advocacy group says.
Move NY, which is making the argument, will outline a new toll proposal to the City Council’s transportation committee Monday.
Under the group’s plan, the city would impose a $2.75 fee on cars entering Manhattan’s central business district south of 60th Street. Trucks would pay a higher fee, while taxis and other for-hire vehicles would pay a congestion surcharge based on travel within the zone.
Recent congestion-charge proposals faltered in the state legislature. But Move NY says the city doesn’t need state approval to charge drivers. It cites a 1957 state law giving cities with a population of more than one million people the power to toll their own roads and bridges.
Scott Gastel, spokesman for the city’s department of transportation, said the city would analyze the legal theory. “This subject has been reviewed closely over the years and the legal experts in both the current and previous administrations determined the city does not have this authority,” he said.
23 comments:
Honestly, why is this so bad? The drag of vehicles on traffic imposes a cost, what with the extra traffic agents and slowness of emergency vehicle response times.
What is wrong with these people? This would not be good for industries that need to ship products here. Living here is like living in prison.
Double the price for politicians and city employees and I am on board!
And I'm sure the Mayor, the City Council, and all government employees get charged (out of their own pocket) as well. Right?
Yeah Great idea! Lets create yet another unmanageable huge government bureaucracy that exist only to tax it's citizens.
Honestly, why is this so bad?
Just about everything. Move NY is a non profit proposing ripoff schemes to elected officials?
Get your greedy hands off the tax payer's pockets. We already are taxed to death in NYC, and pay exorbitant amounts to commute, to cross 100 year old bridges that have been paid for 1,000 times over. Where is all our tax money going? I will be moving out of NYC as soon as I retire. I am emotionally packed for years now. ENOUGH TAXES AND FEES!!!
Do away with city vehicles, everyone takes mass transit!
Whoever in the city council votes yes for congestion pricing should be voted out of office when it comes time for their relection. Just a tax on the average working person. It will start at $2.75 and over the years they will keep raising the price. The city council members knew how to give themselves a nice undeserved raise a few years back. Throw these bums out of office
Now that toll taking is automated, it's gonna happen.
Some anonymous above wants to punish city workers by doubling their tolls. Use it punitively?? Such idiotic insanity, that's what congestion pricing is and obviously inspires. It works for public transportation, not privately owned vehicles. Just charge a toll and get over it.
I don't so much have a problem with congestion pricing as I do with the fact that the charges will inevitably rise steadily to the point that they're unaffordable to the lower class; and likely as not that it'll go to only applying to weekday business hours to being billed 24/7.
At least they don't want to put tolls on the free bridges this time.
Have any of you read the Move NY proposal? It adds some sanity to our system of tolls. Why should the bridges into Manhattan be free while the bridges between Queens and the Bronx are tolled? This plan would toll the East River Bridges and reduce the tolls on the Queens-Bronx and other bridges. Actually would help Queens residents and its supply and demand at work.
Unless I'm not understanding this correctly, it's not a tax on every taxpayer, just people who travel below south of a particular street in manhattan, right? It's only paid by those who are driving.
Time for a Tea Party !
Oh sure dude, once they get to putting tolls on the free bridges they'll get right to work on lowering those other tolls. Seriously, how long have you lived in NYC?
Fuck Move NY!
Funny - every time some blog posts a potential diktat from Move NY, it's followed by rampant astroturfing in the comments.
(1) Once a new fee or tax is imposed, it only goes up from there. If it somehow goes away at a later time, it's almost always a quid pro quo affair.
(2) From my observations, many working stiffs who drive to Manhattan tend to be those either fed up with the poor existing public transportation service and/or those commuting from the outer boroughs/counties where service is virtually non-existent. Perhaps not at the $2.75 rate but over time as costs escalate, I would expect those people to start parking their cars in neighborhoods immediately outside the congestion charge areas. (I grew up and still live in one myself). Looks like a recipe to worsen the parking situation and public transportation congestion in those areas.
(3) This will affect EVERYBODY. Think where we get our food, things we use for day-to-day life and even stuff we get just for fun? They sure as hell do not appear on shelves at the snap of the finger or a wriggle of the nose. They're mostly trucked over. Look at the truck routes... Do you seriously think distributors, wholesalers and retailers will eat the extra cost? As long as we live in NYC, YOU and I will be paying for it one way or another!
> Why should the bridges into Manhattan be free while the bridges between Queens and the Bronx are tolled
So they do want tolls on the few remaining free bridges?
No thank you. Those bridges would be as expensive as the rest if they were tolled. As long as they're free, we can keep them free. Once they get tolled, the toll will go up every year and the city will be even more unaffordable than it is now.
Before everyone and their mother drove for uber, lyft, etc, there was a controlled number of cars on the street. Didn't anyone think that adding a bunch of taxi competitors in the midst of removing traffic lanes for bikes AND lowering the speed limit at the same time would cause congestion?
That said, what is the ultimate point of the congestion pricing? Do they think that by making it more expensive to drive, people will decide to take the buses or trains instead? Mass transit can't handle the number of people it currently has. There are delays everywhere, everyday. Adding more people will not solve the transit issue and it won't help move people around any faster. Most people who are driving at the peak times don't have a choice about when they travel. So this is just a money grab. It would be nice if they could be honest instead of trying to convince people that there's some actual benefit here.
>Before everyone and their mother drove for uber, lyft, etc, there was a controlled number of cars on the street. Didn't anyone think that adding a bunch of taxi competitors in the midst of removing traffic lanes for bikes AND lowering the speed limit at the same time would cause congestion?
How does taking a taxi instead of my car raise congestion?
Taking a taxi would be fine. With the city controlled yellow and green cabs, we were limited to the number of medallions that the city allowed. With uber, Lyft, etc, there are no medallions and NO LIMIT on the number of cars that can become for hire. Since these companies came to NYC, there has been an explosion in traffic as people leased/bought cars to drive for them. Maybe, with driver rates dropping on these services we'll get some reduction in traffic, but the city should have limited them just like they did with the yellow and green cabs.
Maybe we do need to limit cars in Manhattan.
Monday my wife had to have a medical proceedure done at Mt. Sinai (15St & 8Av).
Took car service in from Auburndale for 9:30 appointment. Trip took a fucking 1 hour 10 minutes.
Damn operation took slightly less time. NO..,I certainly do not use Querns hospitals for touchy procedures.
Just because there will be a charge does'nt mean it will end congestion. Its just another way of getting into the publics pocket. New York is crowded live with it or move. Dont charge us extra for living here. Rents and the cost of living is already a big burden. If you have lots of money and its no problem for you be a little more considerate for others who dont were are all not highly paid professionals.low income jobs will always be unless we raise there pay to start at say $80k a year. Thank You
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