Phillip Shucet
It has been benefiting from the phenomenon of transport supply by creating its own demand for almost 50 years. The more lanes we built, the more work there was to do. Now I spend most of my days thinking about how to manage demand. With good intentions, we left a few messes for others to fix. New York City’s controversial congestion pricing program, which recently began charging most vehicles entering the central business district below 60th Street in Manhattan, is a reasonable step toward to a practical solution.
After announcing an indefinite hiatus last summer, Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) revived, restructured and reduced the consumer cost of the city’s toll plan in November. While the news story focused heavily on politics, suggesting that he acted to spite Donald Trump ahead of his second presidential term, New York’s congestion problem is real. The facts support it.
As traffic recovered from the pandemic, INRIX, a private transport data analytics firm, reported that congestion in New York City ranked fifth in the world in 2021, behind London , Paris, Brussels and Moscow. But by 2024, the city was the second most congested in the world as traffic returned to the central business district, with more traffic today than before the pandemic. This demonstrates the relentless desire for cars to seek out and occupy every inch of available space in the central business district, even when travel speeds are measured in inches.
There are four general solutions to crowded streets, all rooted in sound economics that work when too many cars try to fit into a limited number of traffic lanes: build more lanes to increase supply; improve traffic to encourage travelers to get out of their cars; charge a fee to reduce demand; or congestion: the equivalent of queuing traffic.
Congestion until this week has been New York City’s response. Vehicles wait in line to pull into the central business district. While congestion is a valid economic response, it wears out drivers, irritates taxi and for-hire passengers, annoys pedestrians trying to get between cars on gridlocked streets, and disappoints business owners who depend on customers for his life There is no cry for more congestion.
Adding more traffic lanes is an unreasonable and practically irresistible approach. It recalls past mistakes more than future solutions, and the city has already filled the open space with added bus and bike lanes. There is no room to do more. Even if there was space available, imagine uprooting the city’s businesses for construction. no
Bus and bike lanes improve traffic in small doses. But New York City’s subway system is the big boon when it comes to getting people into the central business district. The Metropolitan Transport Authority says that by 2023 around 1.2 billion people will ride the tube and 430 million will ride the bus.
The money raised through the congestion pricing program goes toward two of four ways to curb congestion: offer pricing to reduce demand and invest in transit to make this option more attractive to drivers.
While the $9 fare reduction is understandable, it’s also reasonable to question whether the price will be enough to visibly curb congestion. Will the tax move the city in the right direction on the list of most congested cities? Are the planned investments in transit sufficient and will they be implemented soon enough? Will program revenues be sufficient to pay for public transit improvements?
Fee payers will expect results. Rightfully so. MTA now refers to the central business district as a Congestion Relief Zone. The city’s up-and-coming relief is a high bar to clear. You must stay focused on meeting expectations. We grew up with a surface transportation system seen as “free.” it is not It never was.
An unfortunate result of this misperception is that investment in transportation lags behind mass infrastructure and, in some cases, collapses. Too often we expect public money to match our private travel needs without fully holding up our end of the bargain. In addition, sometimes it is convenient to forget that we are the source of “public” money. If we expect profits, we must bear our fair share of the costs. That’s where New York City sits as we head into a new year.
Politics notwithstanding, it’s time to get New York City’s congestion pricing program rolling.
