How to talk to your friends and neighbors about congestion pricing
Since tolling started, congestion pricing has become a very hot topic for New Yorkers and onlookers throughout the country weighing in. With early indicators — both anecdotal and empirical — pointing to the program’s success, the heated discussions around the impacts of the program can still get a bit disorienting. So we thought it’d be helpful to go over some basic points about congestion pricing and how to respond to the most common criticisms as we head into the chaotic maelstrom of the post-implementation discourse.
The Basics
What’s the purpose?
The absolute most basic fact we need to start with is the purpose of the program. There are exactly two: reduce the number of cars coming into the city, and raise money for transit improvements. Now, as to why congestion pricing is so urgently needed right now:
Bringing our subway system up to modern, world-class standards is a gargantuan task with an equally enormous price tag. We need dedicated funding sources to make long overdue investments in our transit system and congestion pricing is a major part of that.
Traffic congestion is a problem on multiple fronts. Reducing the number of cars on the street is our most effective path to safer streets, less pollution, and freeing up tons of valuable public space that could be put to better use.
In 2024, traffic was worse than ever, vehicle crashes resulting in injury and death are up, and emergency response times are higher — all measures projected to improve with congestion pricing.
What will it pay for, exactly?
The $15 billion raised from congestion pricing is going directly to funding the MTA Capital Plan. That includes thousands of new subway cars, hundreds of new electric buses, signal upgrades for multiple subway lines, new elevators at more than 20 stations, and 3 new subway stations.
Who pays, and how much?
The base toll for regular cars driving into the congestion relief zone is $9 from 5am-9pm on weekdays, and 9am-9pm on weekends. There’s a 75% discount outside the peak hours noted, bringing the base toll to $2.25 (less than a subway or bus fare).
Who’s exempt?
Eligible low-income New Yorkers can apply for a 50% discount, effective after the first 10 tolled trips in any calendar month. People with disabilities can apply for an Individual Disability Exemption Plan, which will entirely exempt them from paying the toll.
Who will be most impacted?
Before congestion pricing went into effect, 85% of people traveling to the congestion relief zone were getting there by transit. In other words, just 143,000 out of 1,300,000 people were driving to lower Manhattan.
The majority of these 143,000 motorists were coming from New Jersey (which tracks with the Holland tunnel showing the greatest travel time improvement so far). And, of them, 60% earn more than $100,000.
Common Critiques
With the basics covered, we can get into some of the more common questions/criticisms of congestion pricing and how to respond to them.
How can we trust the MTA to spend the money as they say?
We get it. There’s a history between the riding public, MTA, and elected leaders that’s left many people unable to put their trust in the MTA to spend toll revenue on what they say it’s going to. We aren’t here to tell people they’re wrong to feel how they do. In fact, we’re not going to blindly trust the MTA either. Our role as advocates includes a duty to hold MTA accountable for delivering on its promises.
So, how should we respond when someone says congestion pricing is a money grab and/or MTA will misuse funding? Take these Tweets, for example:
The first thing to recognize is that this person likely wants the same things as you — fast, safe, reliable, affordable transit. There’s also a cynical, learned helplessness baked into their thinking that leads to the conclusion that there’s nothing any of us can do to make positive change happen. That’s where we can reach these people and turn their anger and disappointment into action.
We’ll be the first to agree that we can’t simply trust the government to work for us. That’s why riders and advocates pushed for and won a Lockbox bill alongside congestion pricing that prohibits the use of toll revenue for anything other than the projects listed in the MTA Capital Plan.
Our job as advocates is to make sure that MTA is working for us and that they use funding from congestion pricing to deliver new signals, newly accessible subway stations, upgraded subway cars, and a more reliable, resilient transit system.
When we dismiss rider skepticism about the MTA, we play into the idea that the only people who could support congestion pricing are MTA cheerleaders, not real people who care about and are affected by the same issues they are. When we acknowledge the shared concerns we have and let people know our work is centered on addressing those exact issues, we’ll be better positioned to make allies of people who may assume our goals are unaligned.
What about businesses? Won’t this hurt them?
Here’s the thing: Yes, congestion pricing presents a new expense for many businesses in the CBD, but so far there’s little evidence of any significant negative impact on affected businesses.
Especially when most won’t shoulder the cost but will pass it on to customers, a practice typical of any business. In most cases, you’re talking about a once-per-day toll being applied to an already expensive invoice and/or split across many customers. For example, when someone references a funeral director adding $9 to the bill for a service, and the average funeral costs around $8,000 - $10,000, an additional $9 isn’t going to break the camel’s back.
Or, when you hear reports of companies adding fees for customers in the zone, take a step back and think about whether the actual cost of congestion pricing justifies the added fee. Business owners aren’t above using the idea of new expenses to charge more and profit under the guise of breaking even — like Fresh Direct adding a $.50 surcharge for deliveries in the zone when, if anything, they’re benefiting from the reduction in traffic that will allow them to make more deliveries in less time while expending less resources like fuel and hourly labor.
The truth is that time is money, and what actually hurts businesses is gridlock. There’s a real cost to idling in traffic (an estimated $20 billion annually!) that congestion pricing is eliminating for commercial vehicles and the people they serve in the zone.
There’s good reason to believe that by reducing traffic congestion in busy areas, businesses will benefit from faster delivery times, improved access for customers, and potentially increased foot traffic. We’re already seeing stories from businesses who are making deliveries faster, and benefiting from being able to travel through Manhattan with more speed and ease.
But what if people stop coming to Manhattan? Won’t that hurt the economy and destroy NYC?
Not happening. Remember, the vast majority of people working, visiting, and/or spending money in the zone are already getting there by subway or bus! Of course, people who view the world and our city through the lens of car ownership see traffic (or the lack thereof) as an indicator of economic health when it should be seen as an indicator of… traffic.
When cars disappear from Manhattan, that doesn’t mean the people in them have. They’re getting there on transit, which is conveniently efficient in that 100 people can travel using the same amount of space taken by 2-3 cars and that can happen underground, freeing up a shocking amount of public space on our streets that could be used for many other things than storing and moving cars (like protected bike lanes, wider sidewalks, pedestrian plazas, and dedicated bus lanes).
Skeptics are coming around!
But it’s not all bad! On the ground testimony from people seeing the difference congestion pricing is making already is evidence that the pattern observed in other cities that have adopted similar programs is repeating itself; people hate change until it comes, then they wonder how we lived without it for so long.
Yes, it’s anecdotal evidence and we’ll need to see some real numbers before making conclusive statements (which, MTA’s first week numbers are looking pretty good!). But if there’s one thing I’ve learned working with people, policy, and elected officials, it’s that data is often less important than the lived experience of everyday people.
Anything else?
These are just a few of the most common refrains we’ve seen as the conversation around the merits of the program continues to evolve. If you have any questions, thoughts, or points about congestion pricing you’d like us to answer (and maybe add to an updated post), send them to derrick@ridersalliance.org.