New York City is months away from introducing the primary zone-based tolling program within the U.S.
The project, which begins within the spring of 2024, will increase the tolls drivers pay to enter points of Manhattan south of sixtieth street.
The final price of the toll isn’t yet determined. People near the method imagine it ultimately may cost between $9 and $23 to enter or exit the central business district by personal automobile. By law, passenger vehicles are taxed once a day. Commercial and ride-share vehicles will likely be tolled per trip.
“The strategies that we’re talking about are usually not anti-car,” said Janette Sadik-Khan, former commissioner of New York City’s Department of Transportation. “If you haven’t any other alternative than to drive, that is not a great final result.”
The toll may produce as much as $15 billion for investment throughout the aging MTA system. Much of the money will go toward the MTA’s 2020-24 Capital Program. For example, a few of the proceeds will finance 4 recent Metro-North stations for communities within the Bronx.
“Expansion tends to be the sexy and fun thing, which we have done. But the sort of stuff that our customers don’t see is power upgrades, track upgrades and signal upgrades,” said Richard Davey, President of New York City’s Transit Authority.
The MTA can be speeding up investment in clean bus technology. The agency expects to start experimenting with hydrogen fuel cell bus technology in 2025.
“The manufacturer that the hydrogen technology uses is zero emission. That’s a nascent technology,” said Davey to CNBC.
Regional planners expect to see environmental advantages with the brand new toll in place. For example, particulate matter emissions from stop-and-go traffic can stoke diseases similar to asthma.
The MTA study of the toll cites the experiences in other global cities including Milan, London, Singapore and Stockholm. “In London, they’ve had a discount of nearly 20% in particulate matter pollution,” said Julie Tighe, president of the New York League of Conservation Voters. “There’s a 15% reduction in particulate matter in Stockholm, which resulted in a 50% reduction in asthma.”
“In Stockholm, it was very unpopular,” said Mollie Cohen D’Agostino, a researcher on the University of California, Davis campus. “It just narrowly got enough support to get past that first trial period vote. Then it got significantly more support within the second vote … people actually liked it.”
Watch the video above to see how New York City is spending money raised by its massive recent toll.
