Congestion Pricing Is Finally Here
The War on Cars
The War on Cars, LLC
4.9 • 937 Ratings
🗓️ 14 January 2025
⏱️ 36 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
At last, New York City started its congestion pricing program on January 5.
We knew that the local mainstream press would be out in force interviewing drivers and elevating the voices of those who were against the toll. We knew that because the New York press corps has a long history of putting the people who commute by car in New York above those who don’t.
So we went out on congestion pricing’s first weekday morning and talked to some people who weren’t driving. Some of the people we talked with were random New Yorkers, but mostly we heard from advocates who knew we would be there and showed up in the freezing cold to talk about why they were so excited about the launch of this historic program.
Thank you to all the people who spared some of their time on a cold morning to talk to us, especially Samir Lavingia, Charlie Todd, Chris Sanders, Alex Duncan, Rich Miller, Noel Hidalgo, Seth Solomonow, Kirby Kersels, Paul Krikler and Steve from Peekskill.
This episode was edited by Ali Lemer.
*** Support The War on Cars on Patreon and receive exclusive access to bonus content, ad-free versions of regular episodes, free stickers, merch discounts, early access to live shows, and more. ***
LINKS:
- The MTA’s FAQ page answers all your questions about congestion pricing.
- Check out this congestion pricing traffic tracker for collected data showing the program’s impact.
TheWarOnCars.org
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | We're not fighting about a toll here. |
| 0:02.0 | We're fighting about the philosophical principle of whether cars should dominate the streetscape in this city. |
| 0:11.0 | That's the real fight. |
| 0:13.0 | And I really think that this is the moment where that philosophical alignment and our sense of priorities is going to change in the city. |
| 0:23.6 | This is a special episode of the War on Cars. |
| 0:28.6 | I'm Sarah Goodyear. |
| 0:31.6 | As you may have heard, New York City has finally started its congestion pricing program. There are some significant exemptions |
| 0:39.8 | and plenty of fine print, but the basic deal is that car drivers will now pay a $9 |
| 0:44.7 | congestion fee to enter the Central Business District of Manhattan, south of 60th Street, |
| 0:50.5 | during peak daytime traffic hours. They'll be charged 225 during overnight off-peak times. |
| 0:57.0 | The money will go to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority for much-needed capital improvements |
| 1:02.6 | to the subway, bus, and commuter rail systems. This has been a long time coming, since Mayor |
| 1:09.2 | Mike Bloomberg floated the idea in 2007, to be |
| 1:12.5 | exact. Even when the tolling cameras were all set to be turned on in June of 2024, Governor |
| 1:18.3 | Kathy Hokel suddenly paused the program in a last-ditch political move that looked like it was |
| 1:23.4 | pandering to suburban commuter districts in the hopes of saving the Democrats some congressional |
| 1:28.9 | seats in the November election. But after the election was over, Hockel hit the go button again, |
| 1:35.3 | and on January 5th, the tolling cameras finally turned on. Cities around the world, especially in |
| 1:41.9 | North America, are watching carefully to see how this goes, |
| 1:45.4 | and if it could work in other places. We're not completely out of the woods yet, |
| 1:50.3 | several lawsuits opposing the program are still dragging on, and Donald Trump has said he's |
| 1:55.4 | ready to kill it when he takes office. We knew that the local mainstream press would be out in force interviewing drivers |
... |
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