Controversial $15 congestion charge to hit every driver who travels over certain streets from June 30 in national first | 16S1KSG | 2024-04-28 12:08:01
THE nation's first-ever congestion pricing surcharges take effect on some of the busiest streets in the United States in just three months.
It was announced on Friday that new fees of up to $36 will be rolled out on June 30 but legal challenges threaten to derail the surcharges.
New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority, or MTA, will become the first in the nation to start charging residents, delivery drivers, and rideshares a fee to drive into the city.
Plans for the surcharges were approved in late March after the rollout was complicated by years of zoning issues, road impact studies, and outside legal pressures.
In the new plan, passenger SUVs and sedans would pay a daily $15 charge when traversing lower and midtown Manhattan streets.
The tolls will start south of 60th Street. The two highways encircling the island's exterior are exempt from the fees.
Delivery trucks are subject to $24 to $36 fees.
Here are the range of pricing options laid out by the MTA:
- Passenger cars will pay $15 during the day
- Drivers will pay $3.75 at night
- Motorcycles will pay $7.50 during the day and $1.75 at night
- Trucks pay between $24-36 during the day and $6-9 at night
- Ride-hailing apps will charge $2.50 more and taxi riders will pay an additional $1.25
The prices were generated by an advising panel that studied congested transit impacts on the city.
However, some drivers may be eligible for reduced or exempted fees. Drivers can check their eligibility with this new portal.
Debates around congestion pricing have ignited tensions between several warring factions.
<!-- End of Brightcove Player --> The MTA has maintained the pricing needs to go into effect to dissuade a growing number of drivers from opting out of taking public transit.
"Crosstown now, traffic moves at walking speed," Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine said, according to CBS News.
"It's slowing police response, fire response."
The MTA also expects the tolls to generate around $1 billion.
The money will be used to invest in the city's ailing subway system.
<!--googleoff: all--> <blockquote class="article__quote"> </blockquote> <!--googleon: all--> Hundreds of decades-old trains snake underneath the city's greyscale skyscrapers on outdated rail systems.
"We are a mass transit city, and we are going to make it even better to be in New York," Janno Lieber, the chair and CEO of the MTA, said while announcing the fee's start date, according to local ABC affiliate WABC.
"I am thrilled, it's a beautiful spring day in New York, I'm surrounded by tourists and people who came to Lower Manhattan, they took mass transit."
But other government officials said drivers shouldn't have to front the cost of a public infrastructure they're not using.
"This is far from over, and we will continue to fight this blatant cash grab," New Jersey's Governor, Phil Murphy, said after the rules were passed.
New Jersey filed a class-action lawsuit against the Transportation Department and the Federal Highway Administration, hoping to block the implementation of the fees.
More >> https://ift.tt/1vf4Ebq Source: MAG NEWS
