As forever champions of congestion pricing, decades before it was enacted into law, a year ago we were stupefied and alarmed when Gov. Hochul surprised everyone (including top members of her own administration) and put a pause on the tolling of vehicles traveling south of 60th St. that was set to start on June 30.
We were anxious that the delay would harm the program, which would reduce tie-ups, speed traffic, curb air and noise pollution and also pump needed revenue into mass transit. We also were concerned that if the anti-congestion pricing Donald Trump was returned to the White House, the tolls that began later on would be at a greater risk of being countermanded by Washington.
We are happy to admit that our fears were overblown; congestion pricing, which began on Jan. 5, is alive and well and working exactly as it envisioned long, long ago by Bill Vickrey, the Columbia economics professor who won the 1996 Nobel Prize and Hochul has become a fierce defender against the feds’ effort to rescind their approval or otherwise punish New York for instituting a fully legal initiative.
While the $15 once-a-day toll was lowered by Hochul to $9 to start, the fee will climb to $12 in 2028 and to $15 in 2031, so the transit funding will be diminished, but otherwise it is a smashing success. Our only regret is that it wasn’t imposed many years ago when others like Vickrey or Mayors John Lindsay or Mike Bloomberg proposed it. It wasn’t until 2019 when then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, pushed by us, powered it through the Legislature.
Earlier efforts failed based on the fear of drivers. But those were just that, fears, as those who chose to drive into Midtown and Downtown are now getting a better ride. And considering that Manhattan parking costs $50 a day or more, a few bucks to enter the most congested part of the most congested city in the country isn’t much to ask.
Last Tuesday, Manhattan Federal Judge Lewis Liman (a Trump appointee) issued a temporary restraining order barring the federal government from taking any action against New York related to congestion pricing. The next day, Liman followed with a preliminary injunction because he concluded that New York was likely to prevail in establishing that the tolls are legal and Washington cannot retaliate against New York by withholding previously allocated funds.
Liman should know the legal ins and outs of the tolls, as he had disposed of four separate lawsuits against the program, ruling in all of them that congestion pricing passes every legal test.
His 109-page opinion is now added to the extensive paper record going back years that congestion pricing is authorized, legitimate and 100% kosher under federal law.
Formally known as the Value Pricing Pilot Program, or VPPP, the OK given last year by the U.S. Department of Transportation remains valid even as the federal administration has changed. That is an important legal principle that the government must honor its agreements.
While the court fighting continues, so does congestion pricing, every day making the air cleaner and the streets less crowded. Eventually, even the foes of the tolling will realize that Prof. Vickrey was correct and that everyone is better off.
