Congestion Pricing Finds New Life in New York City

Marc Santora reports that New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is revisiting the idea of congestion pricing in New York City. The idea is a familiar one—former Mayor Michael Bloomberg proposed a congestion pricing plan eight years ago, but was defeated by state lawmakers in Albany.

"Now, with the city’s subways in crisis — with daily delays increasingly common and its equipment in dire condition — Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who once doubted that congestion pricing would gain any traction in the state, is planning to resurrect the idea and will expend political capital to see it succeed," reports Santora.

Governor Cuomo is quoted in the article claiming that the new plan, though still not public, is an improvement on Bloomberg's proposal. A key priority of the new plan, according to Santora, "is making it as palatable as possible to commuters from the suburbs and boroughs outside Manhattan without undercutting the primary goals: providing a dedicated funding stream for the transit system, while reducing traffic squeezing onto some of the country’s most gridlocked streets."

Gov Cuomo's plan to use congestion pricing as a revenue generating tool for transit can be contrasted with a Mayor Bill de Blasio's idea to tax wealthy New Yorkers for the same purpose, revealed earlier in August.