NEW YORK FINALLY GETS TO CURB TRAFFIC NIGHTMARES

Op-ed: At Last, NYC Gets Congestion Relief.

January 13, 2025

By Carl Pope.

My longest environmental campaign I’ve worked on is now a reality.

New York City finally got permission?to launch North America’s first congestion pricing zone to curb congestion, provide cleaner air and finance better transit. My story begins 17 years ago, in 2007, when a New York environmental leader called me during my time as Executive Director of the Sierra Club. New NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg was launching a sustainability program called PlaNYC, and a centerpiece was a congestion pricing zone in lower Manhattan. Would the Sierra Club help?

We didn’t in those days know Bloomberg,?but the idea was compelling. We signed up. And we lobbied to the state governor at the time to support the idea, and he backed it.. Then, Bloomberg and his team got then-President George W. Bush to give New York a potential $500 million grant if it adopted and implemented the idea.

It looked like the idea had flopped in 2008?when New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver killed the legislation which authorized it leaving no decent alternative to fund transit. Again in 2015 and also in 2017, New York’s political leaders tried – and failed – to revive the idea.

And just last week,?congestion pricing finally was clicked on in NYC – the first test of the idea in the US.

It’s still early for good data?on how it’s reducing congestion, but anecdotal evidence of less traffic in lower Manhattan is showing?up on social media, with residents and visitors amazed at less traffic in typically jammed parts of the city.

Last week,?I took a cab into what is normally a grinding morning commute from Newark Airport to Manhattan. It flowed like an open river. I didn’t connect the dots. I was about to ask the taxi driver “why is the city so empty?” when he answered for me, almost bellowing, “Thank God for congestion pricing. I am saving so much gas every day!”

I must say,?that is the first call-out I have ever received from a Taxi Driver about an environmental campaign I’ve worked on. And he’s right. So far New Jersey drivers are seeing the biggest benefit, with a 1/3 cut in commute times. Some areas in Manhattan – but not yet all – are experiencing driving times fall by almost half.

So the most visible winners?are people not seen primary beneficiaries – the residual cars, taxis and trucks paying the Congestion Fee, but slashing their commutes. Only in the future will the residents of Manhattan, now spared air pollution and jammed neighborhood impassability, get to celebrate. We haven’t even measured the benefits to transit riders of the MTA’s newly enhanced funding, but I think we will in the months ahead.

Thanks, Mike.