USDOT Revokes Approval for NYC Congestion Pricing

The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT), under new leadership, rescinded federal approval for New York City’s congestion pricing program, eliminating billions in projected revenue for public transit infrastructure in the region, reports Gersh Kuntzman for Streetsblog NYC.

In a letter sent by U.S. DOT Secretary Sean Duffy to Gov. Hochul — first handed out to the Post — the White House revealed that it would pull the congestion pricing approval, granted by the Biden administration under a 34-year-old federal tolling program called the Value Pricing Pilot Program.

The administration expressed purported concern for the “working class,” even though roughly 85 percent of commuters into Manhattan use public transit.

According to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, the program is not eligible for the value pricing program “because cordon pricing ‘provides no toll-free option for many drivers who want or need to travel by vehicle in this major urbanized area’ and because he believes that the primary goal of congestion pricing was to raise revenue for the Metropolitan Transit Authority, ‘but the toll rate that is set under VPPP should not be driven primarily by revenue targets.’”

Some New York lawmakers decried the move. In a social media post, state Senator Zellnor Myrie wrote, “Congestion pricing is working — and is critical for the investments we need to make in our public transit system.”