What Halting Congestion Pricing in NYC Might Imply for Plans in Different Cities

Congestion Pricing Plans in Different U.S. Cities Threatened by New York’s Eleventh-Hour Pause

By Scott Waldman & E&E Information

CLIMATEWIRE | New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s last-minute choice to halt congestion pricing in Manhattan will probably harm comparable efforts throughout the nation.

The Democratic governor introduced final week in a shock video that she would indefinitely pause a years-in-the-making congestion pricing plan as a result of it will have “too many unintended consequences.” By then, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority had already begun to hold indicators explaining the trouble, which might cost drivers $15 to journey into Manhattan under sixtieth Road on weekdays.

The sudden reversal means MTA can not depend on greater than $1 billion in important funding. However the biggest affect could also be to efforts in different cities, which have been ready to see how the main piece of municipal local weather coverage performed out within the nation’s largest metropolis.

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Hochul’s choice “absolutely has national implications in that it had been a great motivating factor” in driving different cities to review the problem and determine the same plan, mentioned Stuart Cohen, co-founder and senior adviser for TransForm, a California-based public transportation advocacy group. Cohen has consulted for comparable efforts in San Francisco and Seattle.

“It was always this sense of well, we’ll get to see how New York’s going and we’ll learn from that as we go to implement our program here,” he mentioned. “And so yeah, this will absolutely take the wind out of the sails of pricing programs across the country, but especially on the West Coast.”

The concept of chopping down the variety of suburban drivers who snarl metropolis site visitors and pollute the air with exhaust and greenhouse fuel emissions has lengthy been politically controversial in america. Even the nation’s most progressive cities, the place residents usually tend to be motivated by local weather considerations and a love of public transportation, have struggled to implement congestion pricing or comparable plans.

Portland, Oregon; Seattle; San Francisco; and Los Angeles have all explored congestion pricing insurance policies to fund public transportation and cut back site visitors within the city core. These efforts adopted the profitable implementation of anti-congestion plans in London, Singapore and Stockholm.

New York was set to enact the primary home instance of such insurance policies. However highly effective and deep-pocketed enterprise pursuits have opposed the plan.

Lots of the congressional districts that cowl New York’s suburbs are additionally extremely aggressive in November’s elections, and Republicans wish to exploit commuter rage as a marketing campaign subject. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, vehemently opposed New York’s plan and sued the U.S. Division of Transportation, the Federal Freeway Administration and the MTA in an try to dam it.

Hochul’s choice instantly drew hearth from her allies, not just for its implications within the state, however the way it might be used to kill different cities’ comparable plans.

“The Governor’s reckless decision to effectively kill congestion pricing in New York City — and every other city in America that is considering following New York’s example — is a staggering error,” Democratic state Sen. Liz Krueger of Manhattan said in a statement.

Officials in other states echoed Krueger’s concerns.

Travis Brouwer, an assistant director at the Oregon Department of Transportation, said the state has been closely following the situation in New York for years with the intention of using it as a model.

Oregon recently experienced its own setback in congestion pricing when Democratic Gov. Tina Kotek halted a tolling plan in March. But Brouwer said New York’s example could have helped revive the idea.

“In Oregon, we had somewhat similar dynamics in terms of challenges with suburban legislators and elected officials, particularly in one of the counties in the Portland metro region that was going to have the first implementation of tolling,” he said in an interview. “I think my overall takeaway is: It’s really difficult to develop new ways of paying for transportation, particularly when routes that were previously free, or low cost, are now going to cost commuters a lot more.”

David Zipper, a senior fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Mobility Initiative, said other municipalities can still learn from New York’s experience. For example, he said, New York should have front-loaded some of the benefits — such as increased subway trains and new stations — so that people could see some of the projects that would result from congestion pricing.

“I think other cities will keep looking at it no matter what happens in New York,” he said. “But I would say that, if congestion pricing goes forward in New York, that can basically turbocharge efforts in other cities to adopt it.”

The pause on New York’s plan will set back U.S. efforts by at least a decade, Cohen said. But it likely won’t stop the future of congestion pricing, he said, because the same issues of underfunded public transportation and crippling congestion will remain.

“I think the path forward is now slower, but one of the ways that they may get revived is, most states are now studying and some are starting to implement road user charges that charge on a per-mile fee,” he said. “And some of those as they get off the ground will get people accustomed to pricing.”

Reprinted from E&E Information with permission from POLITICO, LLC. Copyright 2024. E&E Information gives important information for power and setting professionals.