With weeks to go before a plan to charge drivers in Manhattan's main business district begins, congestion pricing advocates and organizers are celebrating a victory years in the making.
They were angry at Shellshock and Gov. Kathy Hochul on Wednesday, who suspended the plan indefinitely, saying she didn't think the time was right for a toll plan that would deter visitors to Manhattan and slow the city's economic recovery from the pandemic.
Those who campaigned for congestion pricing were anxiously waiting for an idea to be implemented Conceived here 72 years ago – It aims to transform the city's busy streets and set a model for other US cities struggling with traffic and pollution.
But they woke up to shocking news on Wednesday, when it was revealed Ms Hochul had been quietly working to postpone the show. Advocates said they were being cynical.
« We're blindsided, » said Kate Slevin, executive vice president of the Regional Planning Association, an urban planning nonprofit in New York. « It's a betrayal of millions of transit riders and the future of New York's climate and economy. »
Upon hearing of the potential delay, the Riders Alliance, a grassroots organization of transit riders, staged a protest in front of Ms. Hochul's New York offices. Anger grew after her announcement.
« Congestion pricing needs to go forward, » said Danny Pearlstein, a spokesman for the Riders Alliance, Ms. He shouted as he led a crowd of protesters outside Hochul's New York City offices, according to a video posted on social media. « Crisis pricing is a key part of New York's recovery. This city runs on our subways. It runs on the millions of buses we have on the street.
Officials with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which oversees the project and is expected to raise $1 billion annually, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But the development was a crushing setback for the authority, which was defending itself from at least eight lawsuits fighting against the plan.
Opponents of congestion pricing cheered Ms Hochul's reversal. They have complained that the proposed fares would unfairly burden commuters who need to reach Manhattan and divert traffic to other neighborhoods.
« Governor Hochul has heard the concerns of educators and ordinary New Yorkers that this proposal on congestion pricing shifts pollution, congestion and costs to already struggling communities, » said United Teachers Federation President Michael Mulgrew. Against the plan. We appreciate the Governor for taking the right decision.
Congestion pricing was sold as a way to control traffic and pollution while improving travel speeds on the world's most congested streets. The money raised from riders would have been used by the MTA to raise $15 billion in bond funds to help with much-needed improvements to New York City's transit network, the largest and busiest in North America.
Under the congestion pricing plan, which would have been the first of its kind in the U.S., most motorists would have paid $15 to drive through the city's most popular attractions and neighborhoods, including the theater district, Times Square and Hell's Kitchen. Chelsea and Soho.
Other major cities around the world, including Stockholm, London and Singapore, have charged entry fees into central business districts for years. New York City would be the first in the nation to implement such a program.
« I was always holding my breath until the first car went by and I hoped it would be mine, » said Samuel I. Schwartz, a former city transportation commissioner and longtime supporter of congestion pricing. Mr. Schwartz noted that motor vehicles are a huge contributor to greenhouse gases, and he lamented that construction jobs would be lost because the MTA doesn't use congestion pricing money to make infrastructure upgrades.
He said stopping the program would be an economic blow to New York.
« That bottle of champagne—the cork's in it, » said Mr. Schwartz said. « It's been around for 50 years. »
