New York Fighting the Federal Government to Clear the Air on Congestion Pricing | Goldberg Segalla
Ask any New Yorker what their top five complaints are about the city and either “traffic” or “gridlock” (or both) are all but certain to be represented.
Indeed, you don’t get to be called “the Business Capital of the World” without piling enough people on to the Island of Manhattan to get that business done, and the result has been that the ‘City that Never Sleeps’ has ‘Traffic that Never Moves.’
At least, until recently, when, on January 5, after six years in development, the city began the Central Business District Tolling Program, or CBDTP, more commonly known as “congestion pricing.” Under the program, cars traveling into Manhattan below 60th Street, which includes the business district, would pay a premium that would go to city repair and restoration.
Congestion pricing, as an idea, has been kicking around NYC for almost 100 years; during the Great Depression, the comptroller proposed tolling the in-bound bridges to increase revenue for the city. That proposal was struck down, but at least five more times, between the 50’s and the 70’s, various members of NYC government repeatedly sought to raise money by charging the seemingly unrelenting waves of people needing to get to the 2.2 square miles of New York City that comprises mid-town and downtown.
It was in the early 21st century, however, when the idea gained real-world traction as then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg made environmental issues a cornerstone of his administration’s legacy. More money than ever before was poured into on-the-ground research and analysis, including public referendums on the idea. Ultimately, Bloomberg was not able to make it a reality, but the steady, inexorable increases in traffic in New York, not to mention the accelerating — and very publicized — failures of the vastly-overburdened, underfunded subway system, propelled New York to finally take the plunge, with a commitment in 2019 to making it happen, and, finally, on January 5, the instantiation of the CBDTP.
And then the federal government stepped in. In February, Sean Duffy, the newly appointed Secretary of Transportation under the second Trump Administration, wrote a letter to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, revoking federal approval for the program and demanding that it be terminated by March 21. Duffy cited a lack of toll-free options for emergency scenarios, as well as claiming that the CBDTP was primarily to raise revenue, whereas the federal laws under which it was approved required that it be primarily to reduce congestion.
New York responded, claiming that this was petty government overreach from a president feeling rebuked by his former hometown, and filed suit in the Southern District of New York to protect the program. The suit, recently joined by transportation groups and environmental organizations on New York’s behalf, cites to already-apparent data indicating that congestion is, in fact, being reduced, revenue for much needed subway and industrial repairs is being collected, and air quality is already showing signs of improving. No response has yet been filed by the government, as New York’s congestion pricing hangs in the balance.
