With the final all clear from federal appeals judges in Philadelphia (we will explain why Philly) congestion pricing for vehicles entering Manhattan south of 60th St. began last night at midnight. The fee before 9 a.m. is the discounted $2.25 and after 9 will be the regular $9. While we wish the tolling had started on June 30 and the charge was $15, count us extremely happy that it has finally arrived in the city where the entire concept was born. It’s been a long trip to get here.
We had been planning to be out there on a warm summer night for the first cars to cross, but instead braved the freezing weather last night to commemorate this very long in coming program first envisioned by Columbia economics Prof. Bill Vickrey in the 1950s. He won the Nobel Prize in 1996, but died a few days later. Nearly 30 years after his death, Vickrey’s dream is becoming reality.
Our support for charging vehicles driving into the most congested part of Manhattan and using the revenue to support transit goes back decades and during those years we urged and coaxed politicians to see the wisdom.
Gov. Hochul, who delayed the June start date and lowered the price for the first six years, is the one who finally turned it on and deserves credit for getting us here (and wrongheaded congestion pricing foes will blame her).
While our writing on this goes back into the last century when Vickrey was still alive, this is the 35th “congestion pricing countdown” editorial in a series that began on May 7, 2023, as the various approvals advanced. There were 15 such editorials up until when we thought it was just a month out, May 30, 2024.
But since Hochul intervened on June 5, this is the 20th editorial in the series, seeking to keep the program on track. The challenges have been changes to the fee structure and the timetable and 10 lawsuits. Friday night, the first of those cases, brought by New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, saw Newark Federal Judge Leo Gordon refuse to freeze the tolls. Murphy’s lawyers appealed (in Philly) and yesterday morning, about 12 hours before midnight, the appeals court said the “motion is DENIED.”
One reason was “New Jersey delayed seeking preliminary relief for more than a month and a half” since Hochul and the MTA resumed the clock in mid-November.
Murphy, who just doesn’t want Jersey drivers to pay anything for the traffic they cause in Midtown and Downtown, made a huge mistake, as Hochul had offered him $100 million or more for NJTransit and to grant George Washington Bridge users a toll credit (which is now properly limited only to users of the tunnels from Jersey, Brooklyn and Queens).
So this is the best possible outcome, as congestion pricing goes forward and no ransom is paid to obstructionists on the other side of the Hudson.