NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) -- Hundreds have signed up to speak at Thursday’s hearing on congestion pricing—the first of six hearings the MTA is holding in the coming weeks as it faces fierce opposition from many drivers in the city and surrounding suburbs.
LISTEN TO 1010 WINS
The virtual hearing will be held from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Zoom with others to follow this weekend and next week (full schedule below). It will also be livestreamed.
Nearly 400 people or organizations from both sides of the debate have signed up to speak at Thursday’s hearing—and nearly 1,000 participants have registered to speak at the hearings overall. The numbers dwarf the number of speakers at a typical MTA hearing, where one or two dozen people may take part.
The MTA said each speaker will get three minutes and the hearing will last as long as there are still registered speakers present. With the possibility the hearing could last well into Friday, the MTA said it was actively switching speakers to less crowded hearings at their request.
Congestion pricing—essentially a toll on drivers entering the clogged streets of Manhattan below 60th Street—is already a done deal thanks to a law that passed three years ago but delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The hearings will focus on which of the proposed MTA tolling scenarios is best. Among the pressing questions yet to be answered is who will get coveted discounts or exemptions.
The MTA has said the congestion pricing plan, officially called the Central Business District Tolling Program, would raise $1 billion a year for much-needed mass transit improvements while cutting down on air pollution and traffic south of 60th Street.
Everyone from cab drivers to electric vehicle owners to the state of New Jersey and Nassau County are asking for a carveout in the plan. Rockland County is just the latest to voice opposition.
State Sen. Elijah Reichlin-Melnick plans to propose a law that would give drivers coming in from Rockland a blanket exemption, noting that mass transit options in the Lower Hudson Valley county are few and far between.
“For the MTA to come and to tell us, ‘We’re going to tax Rockland County in order to fund transit service in New York City,’ it’s unacceptable,” Reichlin-Melnick said.
“The folks in Rockland that drive into the city don’t drive into the city because they want to, they drive into the city because they have to,” Assemblyman Ken Zebrowski said. “We’re not just going to sit back and take it anymore. We’re not going to be the cash cow for the MTA.”
Taxi, Uber and Lyft drivers took to the streets Wednesday, arguing the charge would put them out of business. More than 23,000 Uber workers also emailed the MTA to protest the plan. The transit agency has said cabbies and for-hire drivers could become bus or paratransit drivers instead and has promised to give them special preference.
In response to the emails, the MTA said in a statement, “The purpose of congestion pricing is to reduce congestion in the central business district and raise revenue to support mass transit. We encourage drivers and their representatives to share their views with the public and the project sponsors by participating in the public hearings or submitting comments for the record.”
Ron Simoncini, the executive director of the New Jersey–based Fair Congestion Pricing Alliance, said the MTA tried to sneak the hearings in the dead of August to avoid scrutiny. He said congestion pricing would be a financial disaster for New Jersey commuters.
“The average New Jersey family makes in the $80,000 [range], so if you’re going to increase their cost of commuting $20 a day, that’s over $5,000 a year,” Simoncini said. “So after tax, those people are suddenly playing 7% or 8% or 9% of their income for the increase alone—the increase alone is going to cost them 8% of their income. Who can afford that?”
Danny Pearlstein, of the Riders Alliance, a pro–public transit organization that supports congestion pricing, said Simoncini’s got the numbers wrong.
Pearlstein said the average New Jersey driver to the city earns well over $100,000 a year and that more than four in five New Jerseyans use mass transit to get into the city.
“When he cites these numbers, it’s fuzzy math—you’ve got to throw it out,” Pearlstein said. “He calls himself the Fair Congestion Pricing Alliance, but he’s actually just unalterably opposed to fixing the subway and decongesting our streets. It’s unacceptable.”
When it comes to cabbies, Pearlstein said he believes the MTA’s final decision will consider the fact that taxi and rideshare drivers already pay a congestion pricing fee applied to for-hire transportation south of 96th Street, a surcharge that started in 2019.
Despite the opposition from drivers, Pearlstein fully expects congestion pricing to begin next year to the betterment of millions of subway riders.
“Transit riders won congestion pricing nearly four years ago because we were fed up with unreliable service, inaccessible stations and crowding that made us feel like sardines,” Pearlstein said. “Congestion pricing is the single largest source of funding to fix the subway. [Gov. Kathy Hochul] has been entirely committed to it since day one. We fully expect it to roll out next year. And it’s going to happen fairly.”
Supporters of congestion pricing, including transit advocates and environmentalists, made their voices heard during a rally at Grand Central Station on Thursday. They said the money will make the city more livable and make the transit system more reliable and accessible.
Opposition has gotten increasingly heated since the MTA revealed earlier this month that drivers could pay anywhere from $9 to $23 to enter Manhattan’s so-called “Central Business District” by car on a weekday between 6 a.m. and 8 p.m. Commercial vehicles could pay anywhere from $12 to $82.
Off-peak fares would be $7 to $17, while overnights would be $5 to $12, depending on a driver's vehicle, according to the tolling scenarios released.
The price would also depend on how many discounts and exemptions get doled out, including potential credits to New Jersey and outer-borough commuters who are already paying a toll to cross into Manhattan at crossings like the Lincoln Tunnel and Queens-Midtown Tunnel.
The MTA estimates that it could start charging drivers as soon as late 2023 or early 2024 using tolling equipment similar to the gantries currently at crossings.
Below are the dates of the public hearings. People interested in speaking can sign up here at MTA.info.
• Thursday, Aug. 25, 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.
• Saturday, Aug. 27, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
• Sunday, Aug. 28, 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
• Monday, Aug. 29, 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
• Tuesday, Aug. 30, 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.
• Wednesday, Aug. 31, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Related
Related
Related
