Congestion Pricing: After 2 Weeks MTA Calls It a Success, Others Say Not So Fast...
The MTA was calling congestion pricing a success so far even if traffic was not curtailed as much as it initially hoped. One tracker, however, found commute times were slowing, inching up in Week 2, and that there was still no sign of faster traffic speed inside the zone.
MTA Chairman Janno Lieber was calling the controversial congestion pricing toll, which charges most drivers $9 to enter city streets below 60th Street, an unmitigated success as it began its third week of operation.
”It’s been a great success,” Lieber said in a Sunday morning appearance on Bill Ritter’s Up Close show on Sunday, Jan. 19. “I was at a dinner last night with thousands of people, and literally hundreds of people came up to talk to me about how much time they were saving in cabs, when they’re driving. And frankly the benefits that they were seeing in their employees able to get to work much more quickly. We’re really happy with how it’s started,” he said.
He said traffic entering the zone through Jan. 18 was five to 10 percent fewer vehicles than the same weeks a year earlier. Initially the MTA said it expected the $9 toll to cut traffic by about 13 percent, so it is actually missing its early target goal.
On Week 1, the MTA said, it meant about 43,000 fewer vehicles inside the zone on an average day when 540,000 vehicles were coming into the city and driving into the zone.
The website congesting-pricing-tracker.com, however, had a slightly different take as it took a look at traffic through Jan. 18 at the end of Week 2.
“This week [ending Jan. 18], we have seen a slight uptick in traffic, particularly on the bridges and tunnels, although commute times still remain heavily improved from prior to the start of the program,” according to the site. But there was a surge on FDR traffic, which like the West Side Highway commuters can enter without getting hit with a toll.
“On spillover routes, particularly FDR drive, we are seeing a pattern of unexpected traffic accumulations throughout the day,” the site said, pointing to Jan. 16 when, it said, “traffic has mostly followed pre-congestion pricing trends, but peaked at almost double the usual times at 7 a.m. and 10 p.m.”
Lieber said speeds on bus routes and crosstown streets such as Canal, 42nd and 57th Streets “have picked up. People are getting through the Holland Tunnel in half the time they were before. People are seeing this is really changing the traffic pattern in New York.”
But congestion-pricing-tracker.com says its info shows no impact on traffic moving within the zone even if commute times are down on bridges and tunnels.
Perhaps most worrying, the site reported: “The data is continuing to show practically no effect on routes within the congestion zone itself from the program.”
The Lincoln Square Business Improvement District, which straddles an area both above and below the zone, is adopting a wait-and-see attitude: “So far traffic has been light, but it’s too early to tell. We will continue working with our City and State partners and will monitor the impact on our district.”
The MTA is banking on congestion pricing bringing in $600 million in toll fees a year, enabling it borrow more than $15 billion via bonds that will be used for improvements including new subway cars, new zero-emission buses, elevators in 88 of the 400-plus subway stations and track and signal repairs. President Trump has said he is against congestion pricing and would try to undo it. Lieber has said that without the guaranteed income from the tolls, the MTA would have been faced with the prospect of just making repairs to its aging system without the ability to modernize the system.