Congestion pricing is coming — but at a price.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority will have to fund at least $200 million in toll discounts, health programs and infrastructure improvements to compensate neighborhoods and industries hit by the state’s proposed toll to drive into Lower and Midtown Manhattan.
Officials disclosed on Thursday the commitments they made to federal regulators in Washington DC as conditions to win preliminary approval for the controversial congestion pricing program, all while long-standing opponents renewed their efforts to sink the program.
“This is a big milestone for New York,” said MTA chairman Janno Lieber, following a briefing at the agency’s headquarters in Lower Manhattan. “We are moving forward the plan for congestion pricing, which is really about — more than anything, less traffic — cleaner air, safer streets and better transit.”
Lieber is depending on the congestion charge to generate enough money to finance $15 billion of the MTA’s budget for upgrades and major repairs, including the multi-billion dollar program to replace the subway system’s ancient and unreliable stop-light signals with a new computerized system.
Experts also say the program will make a dent in Manhattan’s perpetual traffic jams by cutting the number of cars heading into the business district by as much as 20 percent.
Critics, including seven council members, have continued to press Gov. Kathy Hochul to abandon the toll, charging that it is a cash grab from commuters — including holding a press conference near City Hall on Thursday.
“The truth is, there was never any real justification for moving forward with the Central Business Tolling Program other than generating more revenue for the MTA,” said a letter, signed by the group, which is led by Council Minority Leader Joe Borelli (R-Staten Island).
This revised program offers a number of concessions aimed at answering some of the criticism levied against congestion pricing, which would toll cars and trucks driving south of 60th Street into Manhattan.
Toll amounts have yet to be set but the MTA has indicated in filings that it is eyeing charging passenger vehicles between $9-$23 to enter the zone at peak times, while trucks could face a charge of up to $85 depending on their size.
The off-peak and late night tolls would be less expensive. And vehicles passing through Manhattan on the West Side Highway or the FDR would be exempted.
For starters, there’s a new program that would give lower-income commuters — making $50,000 annually, or otherwise eligible for government aid — a 25 percent discount on peak and off-peak tolls after making 10 trips to the zone. Officials said they only expect 16,000 people to qualify for the program.
The MTA promised to contribute $15 million to the city’s program to upgrade the ancient and dirty diesel-powered refrigerated containers at the Hunts Point Market in the South Bronx, the main distribution point for much of the city’s supply of fresh fruit and vegetables.
Cleaning up Hunts Point, the MTA said, will help offset any additional pollution from new truck traffic diverting from Manhattan to The Bronx to avoid the fee.
Officials also said Thursday that they have studied potentially allowing trucks and cars to drive into the congestion zone for free between midnight and 6 a.m. as another way to reduce any increase in truck traffic on the Cross-Bronx Expressway.
The agency had been under fire after its environmental reviews showed that the congestion program could put hundreds of extra trucks on freeways in the borough, which suffers from high rates of asthma, even as it slashed traffic in Manhattan.
Additionally, cabs and for-hire vehicles would only be charged once per day, no many how many times they enter the zone.
The agency had previously studied at least one option that could have charged the for-hire car business for every trip below 60th Street, leading to fierce pushback from the Taxi and Limousine Commission and ride-hail companies like Uber and Lyft.