New Jersey opponents of congestion pricing will have their day in court Wednesday and Thursday to try to block the long-debated congestion pricing tolling plan for Manhattan’s core.
Attorneys representing the Garden State will face off against lawyers for federal transit officials and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in a federal court in Newark over whether an adequate environmental review was carried out to address how congestion pricing will affect New Jersey drivers and communities.
The MTA intends to charge most drivers a day-time toll of $15, and up to $36 for large trucks, to enter Manhattan below 60th Street. The program is expected to improve the region’s overall air quality, but federal and state environmental reviews anticipate congestion pricing will shift traffic patterns as motorists and commercial truck drivers seek to avoid the tolls with winding routes around Manhattan. Consequently, traffic and air pollution may increase in some areas.
“You are not eliminating pollution, you are just displacing it from Manhattan to New Jersey,” Gov. Phil Murphy told reporters Tuesday at an unrelated news conference. “And you’re charging our commuters an exorbitant fee on top of that.”
In their suit New Jersey leaders call for a more robust environmental review and claim that the tolling program, as structured, violates the U.S. Constitution by discriminating against New Jersey drivers.
New York transit officials have vowed to spend $207.5 million over the next five years to mitigate potential adverse impacts, but Murphy and other leaders argue that those efforts don’t go far enough.
Janno Lieber, the MTA’s chair and chief executive, argued last week that the environmental review process for congestion pricing is “fully compliant and more than exceeds” federal standards.
“The scale of the environmental review process had never been completed before, to my knowledge,” Lieber told reporters. “Not just the number of [4,000] pages but the modeling and the analysis, studying every intersection almost all the way to Philadelphia, and doing a public outreach process that had more than 50 public meetings.”
The MTA’s board voted to approve fees last week that includes a $5 toll credit to those traveling into Manhattan on already-tolled crossings — the Holland, Lincoln, Brooklyn-Battery and Queens-Midtown tunnels. Murphy’s administration has pushed for a $10 toll credit on the crossings and for the inclusion of the George Washington Bridge, which does not have a toll credit because it is north of the congestion pricing zone.
Attorneys for federal and state transit officials are asking for the case to be dismissed. Four additional lawsuits over congestion pricing are working their way through the courts in New Jersey and New York.
Congestion pricing could take effect as soon as June, if the lawsuits are unsuccessful.
Caroline Spivack , 2024-04-03 18:59:18
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