While federal, state and city officials agreed to kick off an environmental assessment to jump-start congestion pricing for Manhattan, loose ends abound with wide room for error.
“There are so many questions,” said Tom Wright, president of New York-based think tank Regional Plan Association and a longtime advocate of congestion pricing.
The plan to toll vehicles entering Manhattan south of 60th Street is designed to generate $15 billion of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s roughly $55 billion capital program for 2020 to 2024 by supporting new bonds.
The MTA, which developed the plan along with state and city transportation officials and the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration, said the environmental review process would take 16 months.
“I was really excited,” Wright said of Friday's joint announcement. “For months now, we’ve been wanting to see some steps forward. Until we know what the process is going to be, people are going to fear the worst. Now it’s clear that the federal agencies, the MTA, and state and local officials are on the same page.”
The 16-month timetable set off some sniping earlier in the week between MTA officials and New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, who considered the process too long.
“I wish I could snap my fingers and start it tomorrow, but the details will matter,” Wright said.
Variables, Wright said, include whether tolling will be one-way or two-way, multiple pricing including time of day, new technologies and which groups or vehicles will receive exemptions.
RPA’s suggestions include two-way tolling in the congestion zone; transit and bicycle improvements; setting the congestion price high enough to meet both revenue and congestion targets; and limits on exemptions.
Politically, advocates hope incoming Gov. Kathy Hochul warms to the concept. Hochul will take office at midnight Monday to succeed Andrew Cuomo, who resigned amid allegations of sexual harassment by multiple women.
A Hochul representative said the new governor would need to further evaluate the “pace and timing” of congestion pricing.
“In the past, she’s been supportive,” Wright said.
MTA interim chief executive Janno Lieber defended the timeline.
“It encompasses 28 counties [across three states], 22 million people and the most extensive outreach, including environmental justice outreach, that’s ever been done,” he said.
The MTA operates the region’s subway and bus network, two commuter rail lines and several interborough bridges and tunnels. It is one of the largest municipal issuers with roughly $50 billion in debt.
State lawmakers two years ago enacted congestion pricing as part of a budget bill.
Once scheduled to launch last January, it won’t bring in revenue at least until 2023, according to MTA officials.
The authority urgently needs the money now, said a report by watchdog group
“Having only $2 billion at this stage is a historically slow pace compared to the last two capital plans, which were also slow starters,” said senior research analyst Rachael Fauss, the report’s lead author.
Congestion pricing delays, Fauss said, could jeopardize the MTA’s financial stability.
The authority’s use of deficit financing through the short-lived
Fauss added that any federal infrastructure funding will not replace lost congestion pricing revenue because the MTA already budgeted for the federal funds, and that further borrowing by the MTA, already with a debt load that could exceed 20% in the out years, could unduly pressure its operating budget.
“There is no time more urgent than now to expedite congestion pricing,” said Kathryn Wylde, president and chief executive of the business group Partnership for New York City.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, she added, car travel has rebounded far faster than mass transit, “stifling our ability to move people and goods efficiently and create a healthier city.”
In a 2018
Congestion pricing would be the first of its kind in the U.S. Foreign cities that adopted it include London and Stockholm. Then-London Mayor Ken Livingstone launched it in February 2003 and in Stockholm, voters approved it in a 2006 referendum after a three-month pilot program.
A public outreach that the Federal Highway Administration is requiring will begin in the coming weeks with meetings with federal, state and local agencies from the tri-state area. After that, a series of 10 virtual public meetings will begin in late September.
