A few years ago, it was announced that there would be a congestion pricing plan that would be implemented by the New York City Metropolitan Transportation Authority, or MTA for short. Just last week, the MTA Chair and CEO, Janno Lieber announced that they officially have reached a start date decision. Their new congestion pricing plan will go into effect on June 30th (which is a Sunday) at midnight. In the announcement, Lieber spoke about the goals and hopes they have for the implementation of this new plan. He said that with this plan they will be able to improve the mass transit city and “make it even better to be in New York.”
Essentially, the plan is a toll being implemented on drivers going through the “Congestion Relief Zone” to ideally drive drivers to take other roads.
Starting at 9 a.m. every day, the toll rate to be on the roads below 60th Street will be $15. The price will jump at that hour from the nighttime fare rate which is $3.75. This new toll price is expected to reduce the number of drivers on the road in the relief zone by at least 100,000. Due to the amount of movement that happens in this area on the daily basis, the MTA and New York City officials hope this toll will work in their favor and successfully lower traffic congestion. In turn, if traffic congestion is lowered, less gas emissions are emitted, so they are hopeful to not harm the air too much either.
The revenue from the program will fund future transit based investments.
This program has been in the works for many years. Approximately five years ago, congestion pricing passed into New York law. Since the law passed, various organizations, including the MTA, have spent countless hours researching and writing various plan proposals to try and find the best solution. This ultimately led them to the plan we see today that will be implemented.
This plan actually involves tier pricing, depending on the vehicle. Passenger vehicles will have this $15 price from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekends. Trucks and buses will have to pay either $24 or $36 during the same hours. The final price depends on the size of the vehicle and its purpose.
