Rockland County Executive Ed Day has blasted the recommended $15 toll for passenger cars to drive into Midtown Manhattan as proposed yesterday by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Traffic Mobility Review Board (TMRB).
“Rockland County residents face the highest level of transit inequity in the MTA region including a transit desert that forces more than 60% of our residents to drive into the city because they have no other way to get there,” Day said. “Let’s not forget the continuous congestion pricing conversation has only emphasized improving transit options in New York City, with little regard for the tax-paying members of the MTA outside the city.
“This recommendation is an insult to Rockland residents including cops, firefighters, and others who will pay more simply for using their own vehicle due to the inadequacies of the current system.
“Congestion pricing, along with this TMRB recommendation, is an insult to families who are, and have been, struggling financially with high gas prices and record-breaking inflation,” Day said.
The MTA on Nov. 30 released a draft report by the TMRB outlining recommended congestion pricing tolls. The report had been leaked before the MYA’s release. The TMRB is the board that is responsible for making recommendations to the MTA on the tolls that would be put into effect for drivers going into Midtown Manhattan.
The report shows that the board recommends a toll of $15 for cars driving into Midtown Manhattan below 60th Street. Box trucks would be charged $24 and larger trucks $36. The new tolls would be collected both on weekdays and weekends between 6 a.m. and 9 p.m. Between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m., there would be reduced tolls, 75% of the daytime tolls. Tolls would not be collected from vehicles that circumnavigate Midtown on the West Side Highway, FDR Drive and across the battery area.
“I am so grateful that this all-star panel has produced an incredibly thoughtful, detailed and balanced report that points the way forward for effective implementation of congestion pricing,” said MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber. “Congestion pricing will mean less traffic, cleaner air, safer streets and better transit.”
Public hearings will be held in February of ent year. After the conclusion of the public hearing process, the MTA Board will review input received from the public, and then schedule a vote on whether to authorize TBTA to adopt a Central Business District toll rate schedule. A vote to authorize would allow the start of toll collection at a date that would be announced in advance.
According to the TMRB’s recommendations, riders in taxicabs would pay an additional $1.25 per ride, which would go to the MTA. Uber, Lyft and other ride-share riders would be charged an extra $2.50 per ride.
Passenger cars that come into Manhattan via the Lincoln, Holland, Hugh L Carey (Battery Tunnel) and Queens-Midtown tunnels would receive $5 discounts from the congestion pricing tolls because they’ve already paid a tunnel toll. There is no discount proposed for drivers who have paid tolls at the George Washington Bridge, Mario Cuomo Tappan Zee Bridge and the bridge on the Henry Hudson Parkway.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said that the TMRB’s report reflects a rushed and opaque process to impose an unfair and ill-conceived congestion pricing tolling scheme on New Jersey commuters.
“Despite our interconnected and interdependent regional economy and transportation system, New York officials did not meaningfully consult with us from the outset and instead treated New Jerseyans as a convenient way to fill an MTA budget hole,” Murphy said. “The Traffic Mobility Review Board’s recommended credit structure is wholly inadequate, especially the total lack of toll credits for the George Washington Bridge, which will lead to toll shopping, increased congestion in underserved communities, and excessive tolling at New Jersey crossings into Manhattan.”
The congestion pricing tolls would not apply to emergency vehicles or vehicles used to transport people with disabilities. The MTA is expecting to receive an extra $1 billion a year from the new tolls with the money earmarked to help pay for its capital spending programs. Installation of equipment on Manhattan streets that would read E-ZPass devices and photograph license plates for billing of tolls by mail began this summer.
