Elections matter – both before and after the voting.
This past summer, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) in New York City adopted a congestion pricing plan to charge a toll on every vehicle entering the central business district of Manhattan. The “Congestion Relief Zone” was defined as the portion of Manhattan below 60th Street. Weekday tolls would have ranged from $15 a day for passenger cars, no matter how often they frequent the zone during the day, to $24-$36 for trucks every time commercial vehicles enter. All funds generated would have gone to the MTA’s capital spending program, earmarked for upgrades to the city subway system and other public transportation projects.
The congestion pricing plan was patterned after similar tolling plans in Stockholm, London and Singapore, and was designed to reduce NYC’s carbon footprint. In fact, should the plan’s intended revenue of $15 billion over five years have fallen short of projections, the tolls would have automatically increased to further discourage vehicular travel.
Elections matter – before voting. However, New York Governor Kathy Hochul feared that the new tolling plan would hurt Democrats in the November election, especially as the tolls were widely unpopular in the NYC suburbs, where commuters would bear the brunt of the tolls. Gov. Hochul delayed the plan until post-election.
Elections matter – after voting. Now that the voting is over, the tolling plan is back – with Gov. Hochul reducing the passenger car tolls from $15 to $9 a day. Any change to the proposed truck tolls is unknown at this time. The MTA had received approval for congestion pricing from the Biden administration in the range of $9 to $23 for passenger vehicles. New York hopes for a quick federal approval of the reduced $9 passenger car toll, asserting that the matter has already been studied. A quick federal approval is sought because the incoming Trump administration opposes the tolling plan altogether.
Why this matters to trucking. Commercial truck travel is non-discretionary. Unlike motorists and their passengers, commercial freight has no public transportation alternative –cargo doesn’t use the subway system. In addition, truckers can only service customers when those businesses are open, eliminating the advantage of the proposed reduced toll rates at night and on weekends.
Stay tuned – because elections matter.