Commuters worry their drives into Lower Manhattan will cost more. Residents fear their neighborhoods will be swarmed by new traffic. Taxi drivers are terrified of losing more customers.
For years, the same complaints have followed officials on the long road to the nation’s first congestion pricing plan, which will charge drivers a toll for entering much of Manhattan below 60th Street.
Now, as the plan moves closer to becoming reality, officials hope New Yorkers will be won over once they see it in action. The benefits, proponents say, are obvious: reduced traffic and pollution and, eventually, a better transit system.
But some critics still question who will directly benefit most — and who might be harmed.
New Jersey officials accused New York of overburdening its residents with new tolls. Some activists say rerouted truck traffic could worsen asthma rates in the Bronx that are already high.
And the Staten Island borough president, Vito J. Fossella, cited research from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which suggests that parts of the borough could get more vehicles because drivers might travel around the tolling zone.
“This is a three-strike loser for the people of Staten Island,” Mr. Fossella said. “Air pollution will get worse on Staten Island. Traffic will get worse.”
In a report released on Thursday, an advisory panel to the M.T.A. presented its final recommendations. It called for cars to pay $15 to enter Manhattan below 60th Street once per day. Commercial trucks would pay as much as $36. Taxis would add $1.25 per fare, and ride-hail apps like Uber and Lyft will tack on an extra $2.50 per ride.
According to the plan, low-income drivers will get 50 percent off tolls during the day after the first 10 trips in a calendar month. (The vast majority of commuters who drive into Manhattan are not low income, according to a 2022 study by the Community Service Society of New York, an anti-poverty group.)
The authority, the state agency that runs New York City’s subways and buses, would oversee the tolling program, which could begin as soon as next spring. The rates proposed this week will be subject to public hearings before a final vote, which could happen early next year.
Sarah M. Kaufman, the executive director of the Rudin Center for Transportation at N.Y.U., said that other cities with congestion pricing programs have usually experienced resistance from the public during its first six months in operation, but eventually support grows.
“Once people acclimate to the new reality, they are pleasantly surprised by the reduced amount of traffic or how they’ve been able to absorb the extra costs,” Ms. Kaufman said. “There is improved road safety and less noise.”
But, for now, the program still has many critics, including a member of the M.T.A. advisory board.
John Samuelsen, international president of the Transport Workers Union, quit the board on Thursday in protest. Mr. Samuelsen said the fees, credits and exemptions being considered by the authority do not do enough to help drivers who cannot use transit or who cannot afford added costs. He also said the M.T.A. should drastically improve service before the launch of the congestion pricing program in order to encourage more people to ride subways and buses.
“The M.T.A. has stubbornly and moronically stuck to its position that the status quo is adequate,” Mr. Samuelsen wrote in a statement. “As a result, we have a congestion pricing plan that is all stick and no carrot.”
Congestion pricing could also drive up the authority’s debt. While the program will provide crucial funding for improvements to the transit network, a May 2023 report from Thomas P. DiNapoli, the state comptroller, notes that much of that funding is projected to come from leveraging bonds that would drive the authority’s debt up to $56.7 billion by 2028.
Some experts worry that traffic diverted by the tolls could create new choke points outside the zone.
The new report recommends charging yellow cab passengers less than those who use for-hire vehicles, to assuage concerns that rider demand will drop and put cabs at a disadvantage against Uber and Lyft. But to cabbies’ frustration, it does not give them the full exemption they had sought.
Bhairavi Desai, the executive director of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, which calls for better working conditions for taxi and app-based drivers, said the proposal would “devastate an entire work force.” An Uber spokesman said the M.T.A. should offer discounts for late-night use of taxis and Ubers instead of personal vehicles in order to combat drunken driving.
What everyone can agree on is that congestion pricing will raise billions of dollars intended to improve the continent’s largest mass transit network while pushing cars out of one of the world’s busiest commercial corridors.
“Congestion pricing will reduce congestion in the region’s traffic-choked core and raise critically needed funds for mass transit,” said Tom Wright, the president and CEO of the Regional Plan Association, a group that has advocated for congestion pricing. “The policy will benefit the vast majority of commuters, residents and businesses in the region who rely on mass transit and will benefit drivers who suffer under some of the worst traffic conditions in the nation.”
But the association also recommended changes to the proposed rates by increasing credits being given to drivers entering the zone through tunnels and bridges.
Reactions to the program were mixed among residents of the tolling zone, with some expressing support and others critical of the added costs for drivers. Those who live inside the zone have to pay the tolls, but if they earn less than $60,000, they can get state tax credits to offset the costs.
Shantee Lundee, 38, of Hell’s Kitchen, relies on her car to get around as a dog walker and hospice worker. Ms. Lundee said she has recently had to raise her rates because of rising cost of living. The likely arrival of congestion prices, she said, was the “final straw” in her recent decision to move to Long Island.
“We can’t pick ourselves up,” Ms. Lundee said. “There’s no breaks.”
Joshua Needelman contributed to this report.