A first in US: NYC adopts congestion toll

Big Apple plans to use revenue to bolster failing subway system, officials say

New York City has become the first city in the US to adopt congestion pricing on vehicles that enter its busiest streets, with most of the anticipated $1 billion in revenue from the toll targeted at securing bonds to fix the city's troubled subway system.

New York will join London, Stockholm and Singapore, which already have congestion pricing on vehicles entering central parts of their cities to reduce traffic and air pollution, and especially for New York, to improve its aging subways.

Congestion pricing for Manhattan was approved on Sunday as part of a new $175.5 billion state budget passed by the state Legislature. The measure creates a board to govern the congestion pricing plan, which is set to begin Dec 31, 2020.

Under the plan, vehicles entering Manhattan from 60th Street in Midtown south to Battery Park will be charged once per day through electronic tolling devices installed at points of entry to the zone.

The board will make recommendations on toll rates and possible exemptions. Earlier proposals have suggested a daily fee of around $12 for most passenger vehicles and up to $25 for trucks, with possible discounts based on time of day and day of the week.

Last month, a first step toward congestion pricing went into effect with a $2.50 charge for taxis and $2.75 for ride-hailing services such as Uber and Lyft entering Manhattan at 96th Street. Those surcharges, paid by passengers, were approved by lawmakers last year.

"One month of suffering under the congestion surcharge, incomes are already down 15 percent," said the New York Taxi Workers Alliance in a statement. "Tax the rich not the poor."

City officials say the new toll could raise about $1 billion a year, which would then be used to secure bonds totaling $15 billion for repairs and improvements to the subway system.

Transit officials say at least $40 billion is needed to modernize the system, which carries an average 5.6 million riders each weekday.

"This is the right thing to do. The city is in crisis right now — both below and above ground," said Samuel Schwartz, who served as the city's traffic commissioner from 1982 to 1986 and was dubbed "Gridlock Sam''.

"Above ground, the traffic is the worst it's ever been," Schwartz told China Daily. "We have [average] speeds of 4.7 mph in midtown Manhattan — people can walk faster [than that]. And you often see people in taxi cabs getting out and just walking the final blocks to the destination because they're stuck in traffic."

Congestion pricing was first proposed by then-mayor Michael Bloomberg more than a decade ago. But it wasn't until two years ago, when New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced his support for the idea, that it started to gain acceptance by other state and city politicians.

It has garnered even more support as the city's subway system has further deteriorated and traffic congestion has grown worse.

The new toll has caused concern among people who drive into Manhattan for work.

"For them, if they're not close to a subway or bus, this creates potentially a very big obstacle," William Eimicke, a professor of public affairs at Columbia University, told China Daily.