You Are Probably Pretty Fed Up With NYC's Traffic and Transit. What is NYC / NYS to do?

Congestion pricing where the outer boroughs win

Whether you're a lifelong New Yorker or a recent transplant, the odds are pretty good that you're fed up with our city's traffic and transit. As any old-timer will tell you, we haven't seen mass transit this bad since the early 1980s.

From article, (Whether you’re a lifelong New Yorker or a recent transplant, the odds are pretty good that you’re fed up with our city’s traffic and transit. As any old-timer will tell you, we haven’t seen mass transit this bad since the early 1980s. And traffic, recently estimated to be costing the region $20 billion a year in lost economic productivity, is the worst ever recorded.

Competing interests have sunk previous congestion management plans. But between them, the Move NY and Fix NYC plans were developed with extensive input from elected officials, business groups, labor unions and community groups across the region—with a particular emphasis on hearing from opponents of past pricing efforts. As a result, the Fix NYC plan that sits before the Legislature today ensures that Manhattanites will pay their fair share. Just as important, it delivers for long-suffering drivers and riders in the outer boroughs.

Long-overdue fixes and upgrades to the subways will be a boon to their more than 5.6 million weekday riders, including many who come from areas outside of Manhattan. Revenue from this proposal will allow the MTA to finally fill transit gaps, bringing new or improved service to underserved areas.

Drivers traveling into central Manhattan, meanwhile, will get a return on their money in the form of less traffic. Drivers traveling in places outside the congestion charging zone, like Downtown Brooklyn and Long Island City, will likewise see less traffic—without having to pay a cent. Finally, drivers commuting to the central business district who pay tolls on bridges or tunnels will receive a credit against their congestion fee, ensuring they won’t be charged twice.

Some legislators, particularly in Queens and Brooklyn, have continued a decades-old tradition of reflexively dismissing congestion pricing out of hand. Their objections may have been appropriate for previous, Manhattan-centric proposals. But the severity of the traffic and transit crises, combined with the benefits this proposal delivers to their constituents, requires these legislators either to put forward a better plan or get on board.

New Yorkers have understandably run out of patience. The capacity crowd at a recent public debate in Mill Basin, a car-reliant and transit-poor community in Brooklyn, made clear that voters want real solutions and are ready to give congestion pricing a try.)

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