Why we love to hate congestion pricing
Separating fact from fury in the debate over New York's newest toll.
It’s been called “backwards and unfair,” a “con,” a “disaster,” its death even praised as the salvation of New York. All of this rage directed at — quelle horreur — a toll. Welcome to the discourse around New York City’s Congestion Relief Zone.
The idea behind the plan, which went into effect January 5, is pretty simple: disincentivize drivers from entering the busiest part of Manhattan during peak hours by charging most vehicles $9, thereby reducing traffic (and pollution and crashes), and using that revenue to fund public transit.
Sounds pretty good, right?
Well, people are pissed about it: Last week, President Donald Trump announced his intention to kill congestion pricing, and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy moved to fulfill that promise, calling congestion pricing a “slap in the face to working class Americans and small business owners.”
But President Trump and Sec. Duffy are far from alone:
In New Jersey, Rep. Gottheimer (D) called congestion pricing “insane” and “absurd,” while Gov. Phil Murphy (D) has called it a “disaster” and a “money grab.”
In New York itself, Rep. Pat Ryan (D) called it “unfair, uninformed, and unacceptable,” Rep. Mike Lawler (R) deemed it a “scam,” and City Councilwoman Vickie Paladino (R), representing parts of Queens, suggested people sabotage cameras responsible for implementing the toll.
Even in our relatively liberal circles of D.C. and New York, friends and colleagues have expressed concerns about, if not outright hostility to, the plan.
So, why does congestion pricing infuriate so many people? Especially if it reduces traffic, which everyone hates, and creates healthier, safer, and more efficient cities, which (almost) everyone loves?
First, people hate “sticks,” policies that place a tax or fee on an activity to discourage it. Even when the “stick” is used on something bad for society — like air/carbon pollution, cigarettes, or traffic — people don’t like paying more for things they already do, especially things they used to do for free.
This aversion to sticks is also why the U.S.’s biggest climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act, is all about incentives (carrots) to, say, purchase electric vehicles but avoids imposing taxes or fees (sticks) on polluters.
Second, there’s a ton of mis- and disinformation about who congestion pricing actually benefits or hurts. Both New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and Sec. Duffy have cited affordability concerns for working- and middle-class families, while Sec. Duffy asserts that congestion pricing only benefits the “elite few” who take public transit.
The actual “elite few,” however, are those who can afford to drive (and park!) in the city to begin with. Instead, those who benefit most from congestion pricing are working- and middle-class commuters on, you guessed it, New York’s subways and buses:
Extensive research shows that car commuters to the Congestion Relief Zone have 15% higher median incomes than their public transit–using neighbors.
For those lower-income straphangers, revenue from the plan will finance billions in MTA upgrades that will benefit everyone in the system, including riders with disabilities via accessibility upgrades like elevators.
Plus, some equity concerns are addressed through targeted subsidies for low-income drivers living in the zone.
And everyone left on the roads, rich or poor, will spend less of their precious time on this earth sitting in traffic.
Finally, people more easily imagine the costs of the program than its benefits. Before congestion pricing, a commuter from Jersey City could easily envision a $9 toll because almost everyone has driven on a toll road. But she has never experienced flying through the Holland Tunnel or cruising down Canal Street without getting stuck in traffic.
Now that the tolls are live, that same driver can weigh those benefits against the $9 cost. Because the program is already working:
In the first month and a half, 2.6 million fewer vehicles have entered the zone, 10% less than in the previous year, and commute times are consistently down at every crossing into Manhattan.
Subway ridership has also grown by 7.3% on weekdays and by 12% on weekends, bus ridership is up, and bus speeds are up (and delays are down) across the zone.
Revenue is meeting expectations, with over $48 million raised in the first month of the program.
And following the pattern of other cities that have adopted congestion pricing, after the initial backlash, people are starting to see the upside: 59% of New Yorkers now want the program to continue, with drivers noting faster commutes and lighter traffic.
What won’t yet appear in the numbers are all the other benefits: the child in lower Manhattan who never gets asthma; the commuter in Hoboken who sets her alarm back and gets an extra 15 minutes of sleep; the ambulance rushing to the ER that doesn’t get stuck in gridlock; the pedestrian who doesn’t get hit by a car crossing the street and rides to her date in a new subway car; the contractor who drives to his job site — and back to see his family — faster.
And with those results, what’s there to be so mad about?
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Carrots over sticks is how it should be!!