Honk! Honk! New York State Governor Kathy Hochul joined Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) officials and congestion pricing supporters in a Union Square rally just six months ago to celebrate the victory of advocates who pushed to enact the program meant to end gridlock in New York City. Governor Hochul called the toll initiative “transformative.” But now, she faces brutal backlash for rolling back on her stance and temporarily putting a “pause” on the launch of the tolling plan, which was set for June 30th.
Officially known as the Central Business District Tolling Program, the plan, which passed five years ago, was going to impose a $15 charge on cars entering local streets and avenues at or below 60th Street in Manhattan to reduce traffic and emissions in New York City and provide a funding stream for much needed capital investments in public transit. But as New York is still trying to climb out of prolonged inflation, Governor Hochul ruled that the timing is just not right.
“While our recovery has been stronger and swifter than anyone imagined, it is by no means complete. And we cannot afford to undercut this momentum, and I won’t allow this delicate recovery to be jeopardized,” said Governor Hochul in a press conference addressing affordability and the cost of living early last month. “Circumstances have changed and we must respond to the facts on the ground—not from the rhetoric from five years ago. So, after careful consideration, I have come to the difficult decision that implementing the planned congestion pricing system risks too many unintended consequences for New Yorkers at this time.”
Govenor Hochul said that her decision came after several conversations with everyday New Yorkers, like small business owners who expressed their desperate fear of losing their customers who come from states and neighboring boroughs due to rising prices.
However, this pause poses significant challenges for the MTA. Cancellation of congestion pricing also puts a stop to the $1 billion funding to the MTA’s 2020-2024 Capital Program that includes implementing accessibility at numerous subway stations.
“She’s not thinking about a lot of other people that are impacted negatively by doing away with this program,” said Jessica Murray, an organizer with the Rise and Resist Elevator Action Group, which advocates for expanding access in the subway. “The cost to the disabled community is a lot higher because they already have higher transportation costs and it’s really hard to get around the city because the subways are not accessible. Congestion pricing was supposed to pay for accessibility upgrades, and now all of that is up in the air.”
Just two years ago, advocates championed what MTA chairman and CEO Janno Lieber called “a truly historic day” when the agency settled a class-action lawsuit filed in New York State by several advocacy groups, in which the MTA committed to install elevators in 95% of New York City’s subway stations by the year 2055.
Presently, under the settlement agreement, 38 stations are being updated. 151 stops are already in compliance with the ADA– 30% of the 493 stations that make up the New York City subway system and the Staten Island Railway.
Financially, Hochul’s halt is not only getting in the way of MTA’s promised accessibility upgrades, but also forcing them to reassess how to allocate the remaining $28 billion of work left on their original $55 billion capital plan for other significant project investments that are needed.
Furthermore, gridlock and traffic jams keep building up. Shortly after Governor Hochul’s announcement, Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine put out a press release highlighting the dire concerns resulting from this pause:
“We have paralyzing levels of traffic in midtown and downtown. This is slowing emergency response times, harming the climate, and serving as an enormous drag on our economy. Meanwhile, our public transit system faces desperate capital needs for station renovations, accessibility improvements, signaling upgrades, the extension of the Second Ave Subway, and more. Today’s news leaves us with dire questions about how we will address these crises.”
Murray echoes these traffic concerns: “It’s traffic not only for ambulances, but also for paratransit vehicles that are trying to get around in that part of the city,” she said. “It disproportionately impacts the disabled community that are sadly a lot more auto-dependent here in New York City than they should be because we have an inaccessible public transit system.”
Governor Hochul insists that she “understands the financial pressures [New Yorkers] are facing.” She is focused on “putting more money back in…pockets” and plans to revisit how to implement congestion pricing without adding to the strain.
“I didn’t believe in the first place that congestion pricing would be a metric for fixed transit and certainly fixed accessibility,” said wheelchair user and transit accessibility advocate Sasha Blair-Goldensohn. “But I do believe what can fix accessibility and make transit more inclusive is to have strong legal guidelines and guardrails that require a certain amount of spending to do on accessibility. And the first is a timeline.”