Angry New Yorker

Semi-Daily Rants from New York City's Angry Man

"As I know more of mankind I expect less of them, and am ready now to call a man a good man, upon easier terms than I was formerly." - Dr. Samuel Johnson, Boswell, Life of Johnson, Sept. 1783

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Friday, March 01, 2024
 

So NY Governor Hochul is at it again. The ridiculous Manhattan congestion pricing scheme, approved by failed Governor Cuomo and the then sycophantic legislature in 2019, that she paused in June (for obvious political reasons) is back and scheduled to hit drivers on Jan 1st with a $9 charge on top of tolls, parking lot taxes, parking tickets and other assorted "fees" that plague drivers in NY. Of course the "fee" will go up in 2028 to $12 - unless it goes up before then. And then the sky's the limit. Anyone driving below 60th street will be hit with this charge, unless you're driving on the FDR Drive, West Side Highway or Battery Park underpass and don't exit onto city streets within the zone. If you don't have an E-ZPass expect your received bill to be higher than $9. Full details as of this writing are covered here.

The NYC Department of Transportation has a long history of failure on the ground in the past two decades, but none will prove to be more damaging to NYC than the Rube Goldberg-like congestion pricing plan. While the ongoing congestion pricing scheme is spearheaded by the MTA, it has the full support of the DoT whose Commissioner, Ydanis Rodriguez, is a fanatic supporter of speed cameras, bus and bike lanes, and apparently defers to the DoT wing that believes actively making it more and more difficult for drivers across the city - in order to force people into mass transit - while adding more and more unused dedicated bike lanes is its primary mission.

Historically, the NYC DoT is hostage to the MTA, the Port Authority of NJ & NY, the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority and ultimately subservient to the Governor, with the current accidental holder of that office being a mediocrity who gives mediocrities a bad name. She recently claimed in a public statement that, "[c]ongestion pricing means cleaner air, better transit and less gridlock on New York City's streets and today's vote by the MTA Board is a critical step forward," 

It will result in none of the three items stated and is pure and simple a money-grab by the MTA, an utterly dysfunctional agency who lost an estimated $690 million last year alone to fare jumpers, which the MTA wouldn't enforce against because such enforcement has a claimed "disparate impact" on minorities. Enforcement has ramped up but riders, especially on buses, routinely skip out on their fares. 

Hochul has said that people making under $50,000 a year will be able to have all trips after their first 10 in a single calendar month discounted by 50%. How is that going to work? Will you have to send in your tax returns with your check to get this "discount"? 

Indeed, one fact alone demonstrates why congestion pricing is not about curbing "congestion." Under the currently proposed scheme drivers will still pay a congestion toll (albeit lower) in the wee hours overnight  between 9pm and 5am when Manhattan streets are effectively empty and discouraging "congestion" is a non-issue. It's about the money. End of story.

 


posted by anonymous at 4:43 PM

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