One underlying aim of the tolls put in place for congestion pricing is to ensure low-income workers who commute to Manhattan from the outer boroughs will see enhancements to sparse transit options, according to Juliette Michaelson, who served as the executive director of the Traffic Mobility Review Board.
On the fringes of New York City, commuters contend with limited transit options that are in need of upgrades for more reliable service. Congestion pricing is expected to raise billions of dollars for mass transit improvements to enhance those travelers’ commutes while reducing traffic so those who must drive in by car have less traffic to content with, Michaelson said.
The TMRB board recommended a final toll structure to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which voted in March to make New York the first in the U.S. to toll center-city drivers. The fees are scheduled to take effect in mid-June and will charge most vehicles $15 during weekday hours.
“You hear about people who have built a life in what is undeniably a very expensive city and here we are changing the rules on them. I am very sympathetic,” said Michaelson. “The problem is they are the exception and what we are creating here is a program that is transformative at a societal level and inevitably some people are going to get caught in awkward positions.”
Michaelson made her comments during a Saturday panel discussion at the Society of Environmental Journalists annual conference in Philadelphia. Crain’s Caroline Spivack moderated. Michaelson, deputy chief policy and external relations officer at the MTA, spoke along with the executive director of the Riders Alliance, Betsy Plum, and the former state director for New York and New Jersey at the Environmental Defense Fund, Mary Barber.
To make it easier on those faced with those “awkward positions,” Michaelson pointed to several measures that are part of the program: Making the toll only $3.75 for people entering the zone during off-peak overnight hours; a reduced toll rate for low-income drivers who make less than $50,000 per year after their first 10 trips in a calendar month; a tax credit for those living in the zone who earn less than $60,000 equal to the amount paid in congestion charges; and exemptions for those with disabilities or those caring for someone with a disability.
“We just have to remember the societal scale,” said Michaelson. “This is definitely the more environmentally and equity responsible way to go.”
The program promises to shift how New Yorkers and visitors navigate Manhattan by charging most motorists entering the borough’s busy core below 60th Street the $15 day-time fee while passengers of yellow cabs, Ubers and Lyfts will be hit with a surcharge for taking a vehicle into the zone, among tolls for other types of vehicles.
Plum, executive director of the Riders Alliance, added that congestion pricing is “good for drivers too, this is good for the average worker” because it will reduce traffic — an estimated 17% from current levels — and make it easier for workers to travel into Manhattan.
“We don’t hear the stories about the nurse who takes three buses to get to a train and then is stuck because we have years of deferred maintenance,” said Plum. “Those are the types of stories we need to be hearing but it is much easier to tell the story of the aggrieved individual.”
The MTA received a staggering 122 requests from different groups for exemptions — everyone from farmers to artists to students. Michaelson said “the sort of evil genius” of the bill passed by the State Legislature in 2019 to enact congestion pricing is it requires the MTA to generate roughly $1 billion in annual revenue, in order to bond that cash to $15 billion for mass transit improvements. In other words, if the MTA exempts one group, other drivers have to pay more.
“It just makes it easier to say no when you’ve said no to everybody,” said Michaelson. “Once you open the door it’s a slippery slope.”
Very few are exempt from congestion pricing. Namely emergency vehicles and municipal vehicles needed to carry out a city service, and commuter buses, such as Greyhound.
Yellow cabs are not exempt, despite fierce advocacy from labor leaders, but are part of a unique category where they will have a surcharge tacked on to their fares that will be passed on to passengers. Initially, an environmental assessment of congestion pricing had directed transit officials to charge cabs like any other vehicle, which seemed “incredibly unfair” to Michaelson given that cab drivers don’t choose their destinations, their passengers do, she said.
“We had long negotiations with our federal friends but what we ended up doing was splitting the daily toll to a per-ride toll,” said Michaelson.
The TMRB looked at trip data and because the average yellow taxi typically makes 12 trips a day, the congestion fee was divided by that figure, ultimately working out to a $1.25 per-trip fee. A similar approach was applied to Uber, Lyft and other for-hire vehicles that tend to have six trips below 60th Street everyday. Those vehicles have a $2.50 per ride charge.
“It is true that [yellow cabs] have been suffering, but at the same time this is a congestion charge — taxis and [for hire vehicles] are about half of all vehicles in the zone,” said Michaelson. “They are a major contributor to traffic so charging them sort of half of what FHVs get charged seemed like a fair outcome.”
The MTA, along with other city and state agencies, have committed to monitoring traffic patterns and the environmental outcomes of congestion pricing once it’s live. Michaelson acknowledged that the precise mechanisms for making and reviewing potential changes has yet to be settled.
Barber, formerly of the Environmental Defense Fund, noted that the MTA created an environmental justice working group that will meet quarterly on congestion pricing to ensure communities traditionally overburdened by traffic and air pollution aren’t seeing an adverse impact.
The authority and other agencies are already collecting traffic, air quality and other data to establish a baseline ahead of the start of congestion pricing to better understand changes that occur.
“There’s work right now underway, so even though the public process for these changes that might have to occur isn’t totally nailed down, it’s in process to get to that point,” said Barber.
“I want to add that for advocates it’s going to be our job to continue as this switches on to ensure that the MTA, really the whole of government,” she said, “has the mitigation measures in place, that they’re working and if there are any unintended consequences, that those get addressed.”
Caroline Spivack , 2024-04-08 22:40:50
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