NEW YORK — Between bridge and tunnel tolls, parking fees and the ever-present risk of a traffic ticket, it can cost a mint to drive into Manhattan.
Is paying another $15 for the privilege of driving to the most traffic-heavy parts of the island enough to finally get more people out of their cars and onto public transportation?
That’s the hope, at least among some New York officials.
The Big Apple is about to implement a plan that will use license plate readers to turn all of Manhattan south of Central Park into one giant toll zone.
Most drivers in private cars would pay a congestion charge of at least $15, or $22.50 if they are not enrolled in a regional tolling program. That would be in addition to the already high tolls to enter the city through some river crossings, such as the $13.38 to $17.63 it costs to drive a car through the Lincoln or Holland tunnels.
That price tag, it is hoped, will reduce traffic congestion, reduce air pollution and provide a much-needed annual cash injection of about $1 billion for the city’s subway and bus systems, which carry about 4 million passengers daily.
If the plan is completed, New York would become the first U.S. city to join a handful of cities worldwide with similar congestion charging schemes, including London, Stockholm, Milan and Singapore, which is said to have pioneered the first such program in 1975 .
But the lofty plan, which is aiming for a summer launch, still faces roadblocks and questions about whether it’s worth it.
Public school teachers are among those expected to argue for an exemption during a series of public hearings starting Thursday.
Business owners in Manhattan are concerned about the impact on the local economy. Suburban commuters are furious at the prospect of even more expensive weekday journeys.
The fee is a particularly heavy burden for public employees, many of whom have no choice in where they are assigned, said Paul Caminiti, a public school teacher who drives from Staten Island.
He says his options are to either raise an additional $2,700 a year in fees to maintain his current half-hour commute, or take as many as three buses that could take nearly two hours, including wait times.
“For the average person paying all this extra money, it means a lot,” Caminiti said.
For the plan’s proponents, however, nothing less than the essence of New York is at stake. Only about 40% of urban households own a car. People who don’t drive need a reliable and affordable public transportation system, says Danny Pearlstein of the Riders Alliance.
“New York is completely and utterly dependent on public transportation,” he said. “New York has decided to invest in the infrastructure that makes New York possible.”
American cities should take London’s experience into account, said Michael Manville, a professor who chairs the department of urban planning at UCLA.
Although passenger car use there fell sharply in the early years, traffic has largely returned to pre-payment levels more than two decades later, he says.
That could be because the city has granted many exemptions: the city’s famous black cabs, vehicles that transport people with disabilities and even electric vehicles don’t pay the roughly $19 fee, according to Manville.
“There will always be breakdowns,” he said. “But the further and further you go down that road, madness ensues.”
So far, New York’s plan includes exemptions for emergency vehicles, transit buses, certain vehicles that transport people with disabilities and specialized government vehicles. Low-income city residents may also qualify for a discounted rate and a tax credit.
Passengers using Uber, Lyft and other app-based rideshares in Manhattan would be charged a $2.50 surcharge per ride, while taxis and black car drivers would be charged $1.25. These fees, which come on top of the $2.75 already levied on rental rides in Manhattan, will be passed on to passengers but will still harm motorists if people forego more expensive rides into the city center, argues Raul Rivera of the driver advocacy group NYC Drivers Unite.
For-profit trucks and buses, meanwhile, would pay higher fees, ranging from $24 to $36.
Congestion rates would be reduced during quieter nighttime hours but would be in effect on weekends.
John McCarthy, chief policy officer at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which will benefit from the cash infusion, says the question is simply about size.
“We need to reduce the number of drivers if we are serious about tackling the traffic jams that clog the roads,” he said.
No fewer than five lawsuits are seeking to block the reimbursement, including two legal challenges from neighboring New Jersey, where about 10% of the state’s workforce commutes to the city every day.
Richard Galler, a resident of Fort Lee, New Jersey, and plaintiff in one of the lawsuits, said he fears vehicle pollution in his neighborhood will only get worse if motorists who would have entered Manhattan through two tunnels south of Central Park , divert to the George Washington Bridge, which is outside the proposed congestion zone.
Residents in some of the city’s more remote corners have similar concerns.
“What is in it for us?” said Staten Island Borough President Vito Fossella, a Republican who led another lawsuit against the plan. “You’re going to harm our environment, make our traffic worse and expect us to pay for it?”
People with disabilities fear that their unique transportation needs will once again become an afterthought.
Jean Ryan, a Brooklyn resident and head of the group Disabled in Action, says the MTA’s proposed disability exemption is too restrictive. She’s also skeptical that the transit windfall will actually be invested in elevators, ramps and other crucial accessibility improvements, as the MTA has promised.
“Most people with disabilities live on a very, very low income,” she says. “They have no wiggle room in their budget.”
Business groups in Manhattan, meanwhile, are hoping authorities can put the brakes on as New York City continues to recover from the pandemic, which significantly changed commutes as many office workers began working from home permanently much of the time.
Cristyne Nicholas, president of the Broadway Association, said her group is particularly concerned about the impact on night shift workers who have to drive into Manhattan because of limited public transit options in the early morning hours.
“This is not the same New York as it was five years ago,” she said. “We are concerned that the proposed fee structure and hours will delay recovery.”
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Follow Philip Marcelo on twitter.com/philmarcelo.
