Congestion Pricing would charge people heading into Manhattan’s central business district. | Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY
This article was originally published on by THE CITY
New York leaders have long flirted with the idea of tolling vehicle traffic into Manhattan’s central core as a way of raising billions for mass transit improvements.
Now, the decades-long call for so-called congestion pricing is closer than ever to becoming a reality after the release Friday of a key document, thousands of pages long, that starts a 30-day clock for federal officials to make their final call on the tolling idea.
The latest “environmental assessment” report from the MTA and state and city transportation departments nails down key details on how the plan will work, including: a once-per-day cap on charges for taxis and for-hire vehicles; a 50% toll reduction in the wee hours of the morning; funding for diesel-to-electric truck conversions, and even local park renovations.
The assessment also comes with a draft “Finding of No Significant Impact” (FONSI) by the Federal Highway Administration, which means the officials don’t believe negative impacts of the changes will outweigh positive benefits.
“I know that some people will use words like ‘cash grab,’” MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber said on Thursday ahead of the document’s release. “But traffic, air quality, health, safer streets, better transit — that’s what’s in this for New Yorkers and for the whole region.”
It’s a significant milestone for the long-stalled plan to toll vehicles south of 60th Street in Manhattan in order to raise billions of dollars for the transit system, to be spent on new subway cars and signals, accessibility upgrades, electric buses and expansion of the Second Avenue Subway.
The tolling plan — which would be the first of its kind in the country — would charge vehicles up to $23 a day in an effort to reduce the number of cars, trucks, vans and…
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