Feds give green light to NYC congestion pricing plan for next year

After New York City was given the green light to move ahead with its congestion pricing plan late last week, Gov. Kathy Hochul said Tuesday that the nation’s largest city is leading the way “to achieve cleaner air, safer streets and cleaner air.” Good traffic”.

Federal Highway AdministrationThe U.S. Department of Transportation’s department released a green light New York will continue with a program to manage congestion, primarily through tolls in parts of Manhattan.

The measure, which would take effect as early as the spring of 2024, would be the first of its kind in the United States, according to the New York Times. Metropolitan Transportation Authority.State agencies have 310 days to maintain fee plan and related infrastructure.

“We’re going to be the first state in the country, the first city in the U.S. to have a congestion pricing program,” Hocher said at a news conference Tuesday. “Others are going to watch us. Other cities are watching. How does it work here? Well, we’re going to show them. We’re going to show them how to do it.”

While this is a new model for the US, congestion charging schemes have been implemented in the US before. London, stockholm and Singapore.

The cost of the toll is still being determined. A Six-member Transportation Review Committee Responsible for determining the specific pricing structure.

A last august report Environmental impacts of the plan include tolls ranging from $9 to $23 during peak hours, $7 to $17 during off-peak hours and $5 to $12 during nighttime hours.

The toll zone covers most surface roads in downtown Manhattan. Vehicles will be tolled on 60th Street and South, but not along FDR Boulevard on the East or West Freeways. There will also be no tolls for the Battery Park underpass or any surface road portion of the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel that connects to West Street, According to MTA.

Tolls will be collected via E-ZPass. For cars without E-ZPass, the bill will be mailed to the registered vehicle address, MTA says.

The congestion charging scheme, formally known as Central Business District Fee Scheme,Depend on MTAthis New York State Department of Transportation and New York City Department of Transportation. Its purpose is to reduce congestion in Manhattan, improve air quality and raise money to invest in the city’s mass transit system.

Before the Covid-19 pandemic, about 700,000 vehicles entered the central business district every day, according to the New York Metropolitan Transportation Commission Shared by MTA. Traffic fell to just 10% of normal levels in 2020, but has since rebounded to more than 90% of pre-pandemic levels, a stronger recovery than public transit ridership. MTA says.

MTA Reform and Transportation Act Passed April 2019 Calls for a congestion plan to incorporate certain restrictions, including ensuring passenger vehicles can only charge vehicles entering the area once a day. Residents of these communities earning less than $60,000 will be eligible for state tax credits. The bill also requires nighttime tolls to be lower than peak tolls and offers discounts to low-income drivers.

dear janeThe MTA chief executive said at a news conference on Tuesday that the plan would require a 4,000-page environmental assessment report for federal approval.

“They worked like hell,” Lieber said. “We’ve looked at almost every intersection all the way down to Philadelphia. They’ve looked at the air quality, they’ve looked at all the implications of it, and they’re saying this move — this dramatic historic move — isn’t going to do anything to 28 million people. Significantly impact areas that fall under federal environmental law. That’s what it means.”

However, some Democratic lawmakers in New Jersey were uncomfortable with the move and the associated costs.

“This is nothing more than Cash grab to fund the MTA.” a joint written statement on Tuesday.

They wrote that the plan represented New York state’s attempt to “balance its budget with the support of hardworking New Jersey families.”

watch: A $52.6 Billion Plan to Save the New York Region from Climate Change