Next year, congestion pricing is coming to New York City. And maybe, just maybe, the toll for motor vehicles entering the lower half of Manhattan should be set at $100.
That number comes from Charles Komanoff, an environmental activist, a transit analyst, and a local political fixture. It represents neither the amount that would maximize revenue nor the amount that would minimize traffic. Rather, it is an estimate of how much it really costs for a single vehicle to take a trip into the congestion zone—in economists’ terminology, the unpriced externality associated with driving into one of the most financially productive and eternally gridlocked places on Earth.
This number comes just from calculating the monetary value of the average delay incurred by each car’s contribution to traffic, not even accounting for all the other negative externalities – e.g., air pollution, sound pollution, injuries, deaths, etc. – meaning this is probably a sever underestimate.
Non-paywall link: https://archive.ph/LSpi5
I don’t disagree however for people who work in NYC, but don’t live in NYC, there’s some real shit mass transit options and none of the money from congestion pricing is going towards anything but MTA, which is just NYC, not New Jersey or Connecticut.
Honest question: Who are the people who work in Manhattan, live elsewhere in areas with poor transit, drive into the city every day, pay the high parking costs, yet get paid poorly enough that the cost of the congestion toll is prohibitive, such that wasting their free time in standstill traffic is preferable? With unemployment down, why can’t they get jobs closer to home, which may pay less, but don’t have the costs in time and money, so that they come out ahead?
Fair question, I think it harms two groups of people 1) people who live far enough outside NYC for cheaper housing, or people who work hours that aren’t normal commuting hours, where there is no mass transit service at all even in somewhat closer outside NYC areas. With that said, although I’m sympathetic to these somewhat edge cases, I fully support congestion pricing, but think there can be some tweaks, such as funding external to NYC mass transit, and potentially providing some accommodations to these edge cases.
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