Apples and footballs; in NYC, I suspect the poor don't drive in the first place.

Life is regressive. Charity is a good thing, but not every single conceivable public policy has to include a charity component. Charging citizens a reasonable price for the cost of services rendered is a perfectly fair thing to do. The fact that life itself isn't fair doesn't change that. I'd prefer we try to address that later problem separately through a centralized welfare program rather than by hamstringing good public policy.

Give the poorest a discount for parking outside the congestion pricing area, and a discount for mass transit (if they haven't already applied for it).

The point of congestion pricing is to make the correct behavior also a better financial choice. Discounted transit ticket achieve the same goal.

Thank you for letting me clarify my point with two examples of how these seemingly regressive policies ultimately help the poorer among us: 1. carbon taxes will improve poor air quality which currently impacts the poor more than the wealthy who can afford to live in cleaner areas. The poor will enjoy significant health benefits that far outweighs the small regressive tax they pay know. 2. A Congestion pricing stands to dramatically improve mass transit options like buses, which the working class rely on far more than the wealthy to get to work on time and will even expand the job options they have available to them.

The poor will benefit from less lung cancer inducing smoke.

You paid far less. The top half of American pay almost 98% of federal taxes. The top 10% pay nearly three quarters. The American tax system is very progressive.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tax-irs-income-taxes-who-pays-t...

Oh god. Didn't they try to do something like this in Mexico City and it resulted in no change? Clever policy is always rife with unintended consequences; prices are good.