Compared to driving, the MTA and PATH already whisk people into the city at a breathtaking pace (for many routes during times of peak traffic, in any case).
I can both expect better and take a (pretty bad in comparison to other countries, considering the city’s wealth) train to avoid NYC traffic and parking.
Is it just me or is it incredibly odd and unexpected for a decision like this to come so late in the game? Why wait to delay until after so much time and effort has gone into making it happen?
Not really, it's unpopular, and therefore a bad idea to have pending before an election if you want to get re-elected. Politicians typically are smart enough to do unpopular things at the beginning of a term.
It’s not unpopular. Its quite popular within the city.
The problem is that it’s unpopular with a tiny minority of suburban drivers but those suburban districts will be key swing districts during the upcoming election.
Essentially it’s the risk of swinging a few thousand votes that led to this being paused.
If it was actually unpopular it wouldn’t have survived 5 years of planning and wouldn’t have been voted in as law in the first place.
72% of suburban new yorkers opposed the congestion tax. There are 11 million such people so 72% is 8 million people opposed to this plan. Unfortunately thats as many people as live in the city itself, this was never going to be easy politically. Statewide polls show the tax is underwater
I don't have super strong feelings on congestion pricing, but I'm a bit skeptical of anyone who says working class people are the major car users in NYC.
But all that aside, why aren't we talking about the insantiy that is free street parking. I have to pay $$$ for my small apartment, but your car gets to hang out all day for free? If you live and work in Manhattan, especially the congestion zone, you don't need a car for personal use.
First yes Manhattan needs some kind of residential parking enforcement. Those of us who live in the congestion zone sometimes need cars. While transit into the center of my city is good, getting to places out of the center or out of the city is much tougher. Bloomberg's original proposal was supposed to exempt residents at least for one crossing round trip per day. This governor blinked as this was going to cause a business slowdown in lower Manhattan. Traffic has already diminished over the last ten months. The issue is the MTA is wildly out of control with insane expenditures. Our last governor showed them up when they had this hair-brained plan to close our L train for over a year, he had experts from Europe come and show that the work could be done much cheaper and dramatically faster than MTA's own plan and that work got done cheaper and faster. I'm OK with congestion pricing for improving traffic and pollution I'm not OK with it subsidizing corrupt crony over priced contractor schemes.
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[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 56.7 ms ] threadHard to believe driving into Manhattan is the best option for many people.
Where are those maglevs (or trains) that were going to whisk people into the city at 100mph?
When I imagined the future, I sort of expected better.
The problem is that it’s unpopular with a tiny minority of suburban drivers but those suburban districts will be key swing districts during the upcoming election.
Essentially it’s the risk of swinging a few thousand votes that led to this being paused.
If it was actually unpopular it wouldn’t have survived 5 years of planning and wouldn’t have been voted in as law in the first place.
Things that are popular and increase revenue for the govt get immediately passed before anyone changes their mind.
But all that aside, why aren't we talking about the insantiy that is free street parking. I have to pay $$$ for my small apartment, but your car gets to hang out all day for free? If you live and work in Manhattan, especially the congestion zone, you don't need a car for personal use.
https://www.governor.ny.gov/content/governor-contact-form