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New York on Sunday became the first US city to launch a congestion toll zone, after the controversial scheme aimed at easing traffic and raising billions of dollars for local transportation faced years of delays and legal challenges.
Motorists entering some of Manhattan's busiest neighborhoods during rush hours will face a $9 congestion fee. The New York City Transportation Authority said early Sunday that the congestion mitigation zone, which extends from the bottom of Central Park to the southern tip of Manhattan, is “fully operational.”
The scheme was temporarily halted by New York's governor Cathy Hochul in June last year before it was revived at a lower price than the original $15 fee, expected to cut the number of vehicles entering the area each day by about 10 per cent. It will also help raise $15 billion for the Public Transit Authority to allocate to public transportation projects.
At an event marking the start of the new scheme hours before its launch, MTA President Janno Lieber said: “We have been working on this for five years but you stand downtown for five minutes and you know we have to deal with this.” With traffic problem. Now, we're showing the world that we in New York are doing something about the challenges we face.
Hochul initially paused the scheme out of fear that higher fees on motorists would cripple some Democratic candidates in down-ballot races in November as New Yorkers face a jump in the cost of living.
A recent attempt by the state of New Jersey to block the scheme collapsed in federal courts, seeking tens of millions of dollars in damages for environmental damage caused by increased traffic on the other side of the Hudson River. But the judge said the Federal Highway Administration would need to weigh in on the scheme.
However, the scheme still faces an uncertain future. Republicans are pressing President-elect Donald Trump to revoke federal approval for the program, while some GOP lawmakers have called for new laws to prevent congestion fees.
Under New York's scheme, off-peak tolls are reduced to $2.25 for motorists traveling at night between 9pm and 5am on weekdays and 9pm and 9am on weekends. Small trucks will pay $14.40 to enter Manhattan during peak hours, while larger vehicles will pay a fee of $21.60.
Last year, New York was ranked as the world's most congested city by traffic monitoring platform Inrix, resulting in the average motorist stuck in traffic for an average of 101 hours per year and a $9.1 billion hit to the local economy.
