New York could start charging drivers $15 to enter Manhattan as soon as mid-June, a lawyer for the state’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority told a judge at a hearing on New Jersey’s lawsuit to block the plan.
The MTA may decide on the final tolling structure by the end of March, attorney Mark Chertok told Judge Leo Gordon during a status conference Tuesday in Newark. That would lead to several further steps in the approval process. The toll, to be imposed on motorists driving into Manhattan’s central business district, would be the first of its kind in the US.
Think they could use the fees to subsidize public transit in and out of the city? I’d imagine most of the car traffic is people entering Manhattan from out of NYC or leaving it, so it would be nice if they further incentivized that by making the PATH, LIRR or NJT cheaper, but that may be interstate commerce.
I generally support this, but I think Murphy’s comments are sensible here, though, maybe not the lawsuit that’s causing issues.
So, would people taking one of these have their toll applied to the congestion fee? I’m a little unclear on that. The GW isn’t listed there, but I suppose that’s sensible since it drops ya out north of 60th.
No toll credits for the GWB, and the credit on other crossings is limited to $5 off the the daytime toll of $15, no credit during nights and weekends because the toll drops to $3.75 at those times.
ETA - my prices are ezpass discounted ones
Link to MTA info page
Direct Link to Price Chart P1 EZPass P2 “Other Rates” (TollsByMail)
Well that’s disappointing. Kinda seems like NYC is double dipping on fees then. Congestion pricing is a sensible thing to do, but it seems the way NYC is implementing is fairly inconsiderate and slightly opportunistic. Especially with the way its handling low income drivers. It should also scale up for higher income drivers.
When the idea first came up with Bloomberg, it was gonna be an $8 toll and a full toll credit for the then about $4 and change toll (ezpass price, $6 cash) while using ezpass. Immediately after that plan came out the Port Authority (which runs Holland and Lincoln) immediately raised their ezpass price for the tunnels to $8. For a time I believe all toll credits were taken off the table because of what the PA did 15 years ago, and toll credits have been very contentious since.
I’m not sure making transit cheaper is the right thing to do when the money would better be spent on making the service more attractive, iirc PATH could use much higher frequencies.