By Hank Russell
Beginning on January 5, drivers will have to pay a little more if they want to drive into the busiest section of Manhattan.
Drivers who drive below 60th Street in Manhattan will now be required to pay a $9 congestion pricing toll. According to the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA), congestion pricing will greatly reduce gridlock and result in cleaner air and improved transit. The MTA estimates that 80,000 fewer vehicles will enter the Congestion Relief Zone (CRZ) each day.
The peak period will take place Monday to Friday from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Peak pricing will be $9 a day and this applies to sedans, SUVs, pickup trucks and small vans. Driving outside the peak period will cost $2.25. Motorcycles will pay $4.50 during peak hours, $1.05 off-peak.
Trucks and buses will have to pay more. Small trucks and some buses will have to pay $14.40 during peak hours and $3.60 for overnight. Large trucks and tour buses will pay $21.60 and $5.40 during peak and non-peak hours, respectively.
Instead of paying the daily toll, taxis and for-hire vehicles licensed with the New York City Taxi & Limousine Commission will be eligible for a smaller per-trip charge paid by the passenger for each trip to, from, within, or through the CRZ.
For both the peak and overnight periods, the per-trip charge for high-volume for-hire vehicles will be $1.50. For taxis, green cabs, and black cars, the per-trip charge will be 75 cents.
The idea of congestion pricing has been very unpopular. Last June, Governor Kathy Hochul decided to halt the toll — which was a proposed $15 at the time — due to political pressure. Three weeks later, the MTA board voted to pause congestion pricing. Five months later, Hochul reversed course and reintroduced the program, much to the chagrin of local elected officials, unions and farmers.
And it wasn’t only politicians who were angered by this. Fifty-one percent of New Yorkers disapproved of the pricing program, according to a poll from the Siena College Research Institute.
“There is essentially no group of New Yorkers that support the Governor’s reinstituted $9 congestion pricing plan for Manhattan. Democrats come close to break even, with opponents edging out supporters 42-40%. It’s opposed by City voters nearly two-to-one and downstate suburbanites better than two-to-one,” Siena College pollster Steven Greenberg said. “There is very little racial or gender divide on congestion pricing.”