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New York City will be the first city in the United States to charge additional fees to motorists to enter the busiest areas, after the state had agreed to a congestion pricing plan in the United States. the framework of its budget for fiscal year 2020, a few hours before the April 1 deadline.
The plan, designated by State Governor Andrew Cuomo's office as a "Central Business District Toll", will impose unresolved charges on vehicles entering Manhattan through 60th Street. The toll is designed to reduce traffic and increase vehicle speeds in the busiest part of Manhattan, and to raise more than $ 1 billion a year for decrepit transit systems in the city. The New York Post announced on March 29 that 80% of congestion revenues could go to the subway and city buses, and 10% each to Metro-North and LIRR metro rails.
The governor's office stated that congestion pricing would be applied with the help of electronic toll devices, that passenger vehicles would pay only once a day and that prices would be variable. Although unspecified, tolls are likely to drop at night and at weekends when traffic is less dense.
Congestion pricing has long been popular with transit and policy strategists, but politically unsustainable in the United States. We live in a car-dependent society, and vehicle owners blame us for paying more to get where they need to go, especially if these costs affect daily travel. In 2008, Michael Bloomberg, former mayor of New York City, was killed in Albany.
At the same time last year, a poll by Quinnipiac University revealed that 44 percent of New York City voters were opposed to using congestion pricing to fund public transit. But in a January 14 poll (pdf) by the Siena Research Institute, opposition to congestion pricing dropped to 39 percent of registered voters in New York State and supported up to 52 percent. In fact, support for congestion pricing has surpassed the opposition of almost all population groups – liberals, moderate, New York City, suburban households, northern states, whites, Blacks, Latinos, all age groups, all religions and all levels of income.
The growing support for a transit tax that disproportionately affects private vehicles is perhaps the clearest sign that the United States is ready to change its relationship with cars. This change has been facilitated by the ramp-up of mobile phone services such as Uber and Lyft, which offer alternative transportation options to people living in areas without major transit. It has also been sped up by the growing concern over the environmental damage caused by our dependence on cars, as transportation progressively outstrips electricity, the main source of carbon emissions. in the USA.
Tolls adopted in the New York 2020 budget will not be implemented until December 31, 2020 at the earliest. For city taxis, in-cab services and other rental vehicles, a version of congestion pricing has already come into effect. Effective February 2, 2019, a "Congestion Surcharge" effective April 2018 applied to for – hire vehicles that touched Manhattan south of 96th Street.
The supplement favors Uber and other companies offering shared routes, such as Lyft and Via, as they charge $ 0.75 per trip, compared to $ 2.50 per yellow cab journey and $ 2.75 for any private trip. by taxi other than the yellow driver (for example, a regular ride in Uber or black car). Uber put his lobbying weight behind congestion pricing, spending $ 100,000 to lobby state legislators in the first round and allocating a million dollars more to the effort of last summer.
The taxi industry has strongly criticized the plan, which would have caused a catastrophic price increase that would further disadvantage drivers who were already struggling to keep up with the changes made by Uber. Nine motorists hired in New York have committed suicide since the end of 2017. The last death was reported on March 24th. Congestion pricing will also make shipments to Manhattan more expensive, which will be passed on to consumers as a price. increases.
Uber and Lyft are now calling for a similar toll in Seattle, as an alternative to a specific tax on travel. There has also been talk of congestion pricing in Los Angeles, a city known for its smothering traffic.
Although the United States has never tried congestion pricing, international cities that have adopted this policy know that it works. Vehicle speeds are increasing, congestion and carbon emissions are decreasing. "If you survive in this valley of political death and people actually see the benefits, and also realize that in addition to the benefits, it's not as bad as you thought," he said. Curbed the director of transport of Stockholm, in March 2018, "then the support starts to rise again. "
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