It's going to be interesting to see how New Yorkers respond to this. Never been there, but from all reports, it's a busy, busy crowded place. So the Cuomo adminstration is going to the London, Singapore and Milan solution - a congestion traffic toll.

The transit upgrades are apparently a mess, so this is supposedly a fix via essentially, a tax. Cuomo had to declare a state of emergency in one of the richest cities in the world to get the transit system working? Wow.

 

ugh, congestion charges are ridiculous. Please dont let this ever come to california.

 

We already have a congestion toll here in the D.C.-Virginia suburbs, on Interstate 66. Inside the Beltway, during rush hours, you have to have a transponder, and an automatic detector system charges you each time you use it, with the rate depending on how many vehicles are already on the road and any given moment vs. how many are trying to get on at that same moment. To put it bluntly, it's been a mess.....and they are still trying to work all the bugs out of the system. Makes me glad I'm retired and don't mess with that daily crap any more.

 

^^ we have those too on some freeways. they are called express lanes. But this article is referring to actual charges for entering a particular area of the city, which is much worse

 

This is just another excuse to milk the New Yorkers. If they could, they'd charge you for the air you breath in this city.

 

So they want to discourage people from driving in the congestion zone, but they will also charge taxis from entering? Isn't that part of the point? Force people to take taxis or other transit options? It's not always convenient to take the bus or the subway. And then those taxis have to pay each time they reenter the zone? So if they go below 60th St, then take a fare to 90th St, and then another fare back down below 60th, they have to keep paying???

And how do they collect it? An open EZ Pass system? Stopping cars at 60th Street will cause a traffic nightmare itself.

 

a) They should not toll trucks - they are there to do work, bring deliveries, etc. Increased cost of business will be passed onto consumers.

b) There is very little reason to drive a private car or take taxi. It is simply faster to walk or take subway throughout the city. However, a lot of people that are driving around Manhattan are doing it because they are coming in from far away, and public transit isn't reliable. Would be great to have large parking lots near the crossings, so people could drive into Manhattan, park, and then walk or take subways.

c) Reduce number of taxis and ban Uber/Lyft in Manhattan. Toll the living crap out of the remaining ones during weekday business hours. One has got to be seriously lazy to take cabs around the city, because its much slower than walking and using the subway, and should pay premium for it.

d) Get rid of the god damn NYCT buses. They are slow, clumsy, redundant and useless. They simply don't belong on the city streets. Most of their routes are redundant with subway, but they move so slowly that is way faster to simply walk. Think about it - first you gotta get to the bus stop, then you wait forever for the bus, then it crawls at a snails pace, and then you got to get to your actual destination from the bus stop. The only people that take the bus around the city are old farts from $300 rent stabilized apartments in UWS with a lot of time to waste. Replace the buses with smaller 10-15 passenger vans, and instead of fixed routes have them operate using an app similar to Uber Pool.

 

My cousin stated that in his opinion, there should be a $50 or higher toll to enter Manhattan. I agree. This is a place, where a physician would not be able to afford to live. So one can say, there's really no legitimate reason to drive there. They've already resorted to tactics such as, you have a NY EZPass, the bridge is $11.52. If your EZPass if from NJ, or anywhere else, the bridge is $17. Why would you willingly pay $17, when New Yorkers can pay $11.52? But I get it, if you have to use JFK airport, what can you do? You can play the carpool game, but that's about it.

My feeling is that in life, you, me, anybody, should never allow ourselves to be treated as 2nd class, and pay that much more, if we can help it. But if the toll goes up to $50, essentially that says most everyone should and likely would use public transit.

Times Square today is a tourist's playground that locals can nary afford. When you're still getting 1.38 to 1 on the USD, why not? I prefer the way it was in 1987, when NYC was a fun place. Sun went down, tourists went back to their hotels... But that's long, gone....

 

I can see your sentiment on c--but there are some adverse effects if that happened. Note, I do not drive for UBER, nor have I ever used one (weird huh). But imho it was generally a positive thing to have UBER and the apple green cabs. Not so much for those who had the medallions (total and financial disaster). Without the latter, it would be like Sweden. I had a g/f there way back when. The price of an apartment was ridiculously low, ridiculous. The problem was it took 9-11 years after application, to get one.

 

Di Blasio has discovered that, despite his best efforts (and that of Bloomberg, etc.), there are still people out there who want to come into Manhattan and spend money (Broadway, restaurants, tourists, blah).

And his job is to stop them.

If the high dollar businesses that will go broke from this have any brains (doubtful) they will offer to validate the toll off the bill, and say so.

 

Hey, I got married in Manhattan, because my wife insisted this is where she's from, this is where her relatives and friends are, etc. My only responsibility was to handle the rehearsal dinner (and pay for it of course). Found a nice middle of the road place, seemed like it would be ok.

"We can certainly do this for you for $95/plate."

Maybe we paid that for the actual reception, but I'm talking rehearsal dinner. I asked my wife what about Jersey? No way. But suprisingly, the prices did not come down much in Jersey City, Hoboken, etc. You have to get pretty far away to see a drop.

NYC is a very unique place. Arguably it was once, and may still be, the capital of the world. To expect it to be discounted, is naive. I can't stand leaving my car with a valet, but there is no choice (used to be municipal run garages/self park). If you want to be there, it's gonna cost, just the way it is. Work is another story, people commute in for the higher pay, my wife did it 4 years.

 

i am certain i will never drive in manhattan ever again in my life.

manhattan is cramped, with millions of people. the only vehicles that should be there are delivery, transportation services, and govt services / law enforcement, etc. driving ones own car there is basically insane. it's slow, expensive, and risky.

manhattan is also facing many serious funding challenges so no doubt taxes will keep rising. and with the fed tax bill passed, many high rollers in manhattan are going to be paying a LOT more in taxes. some will leave. manhattan has had some awful mayors, but we'll see how the current bozo handles all this since he's obviously planning on running for president soon.

 

Whenever there are large and dense pedestrian areas such as downtowns or business districts there are no reasons to have cars over there making a mess and contributing exhaust gases. Just like how you have no pedestrians and sidewalks on a freeway for safety reasons.