New York’s new toll for drivers getting into the middle of Manhattan debuted Sunday, that means many individuals pays $9 to entry the busiest a part of the Massive Apple throughout peak hours.
The toll, often known as congestion pricing, is supposed to scale back site visitors gridlock within the densely packed metropolis whereas additionally elevating cash to assist repair its ailing public transit infrastructure.
“We’ve been finding out this concern for 5 years. And it solely takes about 5 minutes if you happen to’re in midtown Manhattan to see that New York has an actual site visitors drawback,” Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chair and CEO Janno Lieber informed reporters late Friday after a court docket listening to that cleared the best way for the tolls.
“We have to make it simpler for individuals who select to drive, or who need to drive, to get across the metropolis.”
The associated fee to drivers depends upon what time of the day it’s and if drivers have an E-ZPass, an digital toll assortment system that’s utilized in many states.
Most drivers with E-ZPasses will get dinged the $9 payment to enter Manhattan south of Central Park on weekdays between 5 a.m. and 9 p.m. and on weekends between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. Throughout off hours, the toll might be $2.25.
That’s on prime of tolls drivers pay for crossing varied bridges and tunnels to get to town within the first place, though there might be a credit score of as much as $3 for many who have already paid to enter Manhattan through sure tunnels throughout peak hours.
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President-elect Donald Trump, a Republican, has vowed to kill this system when he takes workplace, nevertheless it’s unclear if he’ll comply with via. The plan had stalled throughout his first time period whereas it waited on a federal environmental overview.
In November, Trump, whose namesake Trump Tower is within the toll zone, mentioned congestion pricing “will put New York Metropolis at a drawback over competing cities and states, and companies will flee.”
“Not solely is that this a large tax to folks coming in, this can be very inconvenient from each driving and private reserving maintaining requirements,” he mentioned in an announcement. “It is going to be just about inconceivable for New York Metropolis to return again so long as the congestion tax is in impact.”
Different large cities all over the world, together with London and Stockholm, have comparable congestion pricing schemes, however it’s the first within the U.S.
The toll was supposed to enter impact final 12 months with a $15 cost, however Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul abruptly paused this system earlier than the 2024 election, when congressional races in suburban areas across the metropolis — the epicenter of opposition to this system — have been thought of to be very important to her social gathering’s effort to retake management of Congress.
Not lengthy after the election, the plan however on the decrease $9 toll. She denies politics have been at play and mentioned she thought the unique $15 cost was an excessive amount of, although she had been a vocal supporter of this system earlier than halting it.
Congestion pricing additionally survived a number of lawsuits searching for to dam this system, together with a last-ditch effort from the state of New Jersey to have a choose put up a short lived roadblock in opposition to it. A spokesperson for New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, Natalie Hamilton, mentioned in an e-mail Saturday, that they’d” proceed combating in opposition to this unfair and unpopular scheme.”
© 2025 The Canadian Press
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