With congestion pricing stop, New York City enters new era of economic gridlock

But no one cares if it serves their political interests.

Personally, as a remote worker, it bugs me that she’s doing this to force people to go to work. So basically she wants the pollution and massive waste of resources if someone can sell a bunch of 15 dollar sandwiches and 10 dollar coffees at street level every day. In other words she wants to fleece employees either way.

I feel for the business paying rent based on foot traffic in cities, however they know that if the foot traffic goes away, they can get out of their leases, since at least in malls etc the price per sq foot is based on foot traffic.

But what I have zero interest in is this argument that I have to go to work so that I can be fleeced by businesses every time I walk down the street, so that they can stay in business. That is not my problem. Its pretty insulting given how much better for the environment and people’s personal lives it is to work remotely to treat us like a bunch of chickens going through a toll gate.

Progressive companies that know the future have already let their leases go and gone full remote. More will follow. There will be no back to office.

Please note: this can barely be considered a partisan comment.

That’s because there are no penalties for violating the Oath of Office they take - the courts will simply override her decision at some point.

If by chance they don’t she will simply reverse her decision - after the election.

This is pure politics by a politician who cares only about herself and her party.

Board members historically have been creatures of their appointees, exercising no independent judgment.

The suburbs hate this congestion pricing plan.

So, yes, technically the governor can’t do this. Practically, she can.

* not really, one of the votes is split into four pieces, but effectively

The problem is that so much of the control of NYC lies with state-level Democrats who are structurally incentived to prioritize the suburbs over the city because the suburbs are more likely to vote Republican in various races. This is exactly what happened here. Hochul -- working with the federal House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries -- paused congestion pricing to make it easier to win House seats in the suburbs. If they lose support in the city they don't care because the city districts are so safe.

The insanely high cost of building relatively modest things precludes entirely building ambitious things. Not even the federal government has that kind of money.

In other news: water is wet.

In all seriousness, doesn't this also impact cab prices? How much is a typical fare for 15min ride in central London?

City of London has had it. It's an absolutely trivial area when compared to what is proposed in Manhattan, where literally half of the island -- and almost every major entry/exit point to the island -- is included in the "congestion area". London's congestion area is something akin to lower Manhattan south of Wall St., by proportion of land and overall impact.

It's completely disingenuous that supporters of this plan keep confusing the tiny London congestion area with the entirety of London. You can see the actual proportion on the maps on these pages:

London's zone: https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/driving/congestion-charge/congestio...

NYC's zone: https://www.fox5ny.com/news/nyc-congestion-pricing-map-exemp...

Do people living outside the city of London also agree it only has benefits? And does it work so well for London because more people actually live in the city, compared to New York City which is comparsrively full of commutors and tourists?

(The entire situation is a pathetically self-inflicted one: the MTA is a state entity instead of a city one, meaning that the city's single most important mode of transportation is perpetually shackled to the state's political slapfights.)

It was little more than a backdoor tax on all city residents, disguised as urbanism. Good riddance.

(FWIW, I even support more funding for the MTA, within reason, but this wasn't the way to do it.)

- grocery shopping every week requires a car

- it takes me 1.5 hours to commute to work by subway, ~ 1 hour by car in a good day. When it's freezing outside and I have to walk 2 kilometers to the subway, I would prefer the car. When there are 38 degrees Celsius, I would prefer the car (also from the subway to the office is over .5 kilometers). Getting sweaty in the office is bad. Luckily I work from home most of the time or I take a motorcycle, much faster than a car and better most of the time (except when it's freezing)

- driving the kids to school sometimes requires a car when the school is 2 km away and there is no direct public transportation in that direction (or you have to change 3 different bus lines)

Work from home is not always and option and most of the time is not the employee's choice. All the greenwashing companies that require their employees in the office for work that does not require physical presence bear more guilt on pollution than their employees.

Which NJ residents do you think are through-transiting via the Manhattan's streets? The core demographic being targeted here is driving onto the streets to park and go to work, not to drive into Brooklyn, Queens, or LI.

(To my understanding, the plan with the congestion charge is to waive the charge when drivers stay on highways and freeways, i.e. don't enter the grid. So a NJ resident who takes the GWB and drives down HHP and then Brooklyn via 478 would never pay the congestion fare.)

"Low-income drivers who earn less than $50,000 a year can apply to pay half the price on the daytime toll, but only after the first 10 trips in a month."