New York City’s new congestion charge really is begging for motorist analogies. It stalled. It sputtered out of the gate. Its hazards are still blinking. And while the path cleared for the first vehicle-toll plan of its kind in the United States to take effect in early January, it now faces a presidential threat.
An idea that has been fiercely debated for decades, the current version of the toll imposes a $9 charge on passenger vehicles entering Manhattan below 60th Street. Motorcycles are charged less, while sightseeing buses and trucks pay more.
“We’ll unclog our streets, reduce pollution and deliver better public transit for millions of New Yorkers,” New York Governor Kathy Hochul said at a press conference in November, as her administration hustled to implement the charge before President Donald Trump, a strong critic of it, took office. This month, he indicated again that he hoped to quash the levy, telling the New York Post that it is "really horrible" and "destructive to New York," despite early evidence to the contrary about less bumper to bumper traffic. It also faces lawsuits from a teachers’ union and New Jersey State, which oppose the plan.
Congestion pricing isn’t new. Singapore was the first city to impose it, in 1975. Since then, London, Stockholm, Milan and Gothenburg have adopted schemes intended to reduce pollution, alleviate snarled traffic and generate much-needed funds for transit infrastructure. The most famous of the congestion charges, in London, has delivered notable results. In 2023, 20 years after its implementation, officials reported that it had sparked a “quiet revolution” in the British capital, reducing congestion by 30%, driving the number of vehicles in the affected zone down by 18%, boosting bus travel in Central London by 33% and playing a role in a 10% increase in walking, cycling and transit journeys.
New York’s transit authority expects the congestion charge to cut traffic by 17% in the affected zone. In recent years, driving in the notoriously congested city has gotten worse, with speeds declining some 23% between 2010 and 2019 in Manhattan, or from 9.1 miles per hour to 7.1, according to project proponents. Gridlock has aggravated air and noise pollution and has made it even more difficult for emergency vehicles to get where they need to go.
The congestion charge is also critical to funding the largest capital plan in New York City history, allowing the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to access $15 billion in bonds to fund a subway extension to East Harlem, upgrades to signal systems on various subway lines, accessibility improvements at more than 20 stations, and hundreds of new electric buses. Money is being earmarked for “air quality and environmental justice” initiatives, including asthma centres in the Bronx, charging stations for electric trucks, air filtration units for schools located near highways, and $25 million for park upgrades.
But getting here required a fight, and may still. New Yorkers have floated the idea of a congestion charge since the 1950s. In June, the city was poised to make it a reality with a proposal to impose a $15 charge for passenger vehicles. But at the last minute, Hochul intervened, shelving that plan and shocking proponents. The governor’s decision was at least partially based on concerns that it could deter people from driving to New York City when it was still in the midst of an economic recovery, although The New York Times reported that the decision was tainted by politics, an attempt to give Democratic districts where congestion pricing is unpopular a little boost. Local groups filed a lawsuit hoping to revive it.
At the time, Hochul defended the move as one intended to avoid placing more burden on working and middle-class families. When introducing the new plan, in November, she emphasized the lower price.
Before taking office, Trump called it “the most regressive tax known to womankind (man!),” predicting that “businesses will flee.” Proponents argue it’s exactly what the city needs.
“Congestion pricing cannot happen soon enough,” said Danny Pearlstein, a spokesperson for the Riders Alliance, an organization of bus and subway riders fighting for better transit in New York City.
Other cities will be watching closely to see if New York pulls it off.
