After a last-minute about-face, pushback, and compromise, congestion pricing officially went into effect this week in New York City.
The first-in-the-nation policy — which tries to reduce traffic and raise revenue for public transit by charging drivers a steep fee to use the busiest roads in Manhattan — has been, to say the least, controversial. Back in June, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul abruptly slammed the brakes on congestion pricing just weeks before it was set to launch, only to eventually bring it back at a lower rate. At the time, a Siena College poll had found that nearly two-thirds of New Yorkers opposed the plan. And since it launched, some people living in and around Manhattan have aired their grievances about the extra charge, and businesses have said that the new scheme will cause them to raise their prices.
It’s way too soon to measure how congestion pricing is faring in New York, either in terms of its popularity or effects on transportation in the region. Commute times have reportedly been shorter on bridges and tunnels entering Manhattan. And while there are anecdotes of quieter streets within the congestion relief zone — which is anywhere in Manhattan south of 60th Street — traffic data so far shows that there hasn’t been much of a change in commuting patterns compared to previous weeks. It’s also hard to say how much of any traffic changes have been a result of congestion pricing as opposed to, say, brutally cold weather…