City planning produces traffic. Blaming drivers is a lazy evasion of responsibility. Large sections of Robert Caro's Power Broker pretty much explains exactly why there's traffic in the city and how it was baked in by the mid 20th century. If anyone is driving in or driving through Manhattan it's because they have to, not because they prefer it over pretty much any other alternative. It's a cash grab, pure and simple with absolutely no reasonable expectation for traffic reduction following this initiative. The residents "dealing with the costs" also need things delivered or a ride to the places mass transit doesn't support and you better believe that the extra $15 dollars will be something that will find its way in the already inflated costs of living in NYC.
If someone really needs to drive into Manhattan most days perhaps they should move to a place that's close to a PATH, LIRR, Metro-North, subway, ferry, or other transit system.
> The residents "dealing with the costs" also need things delivered
This generally works in favor of people within the congestion zone, because time is money and delivery drivers can do far more deliveries per hour.
> or a ride to the places mass transit doesn't support
Residents of Manhattan below 59th can easily take one of the above-mentioned transit options to get to Jersey City, Queens, Brooklyn, or Harlem, and get in an Uber or Zipcar from there. But if someone needs to do this most days, perhaps they shouldn't be living in Manhattan.
I live in Brooklyn and have a rarely used car. I'm 100% onboard with taking the train, walking, or biking. There should be so many more open streets as well.
The only issue I have with any of this is when I want to LEAVE the city. I pay tolls on the way out and on the way in currently that get me close to $30. Now it's closer to $45 if I enter the zone.
Ok but New Jersey charges people to leave, and leaving Jersey is a hot commodity!
I have to admit that's an expensive trip to leave and return to the city now. Might be nice if there were a discount for verified residents of Manhattan, but given existing issues with placard abuse throughout the NYPD I bet any exceptions would get abused to hell and back.
>If someone really needs to drive into Manhattan most days perhaps they should move to a place that's close to a PATH, LIRR, Metro-North, subway, ferry, or other transit system.
It depends where in Queens. The buses are actually not bad these days, they get you to the subway or LIRR.
Some parts of Queens are better than others. But infrastructure changes (which is what this is) always results in people finding new jobs or new homes.
Shame to see you so downvoted. The spoiled rich fucks on this board have absolutely no idea just how inaccessible or poorly accessible most of the outer boroughs are and think that a 2-3hr commute (oh those perfectly-running subway lines!) is a perfectly reasonable alternative to paying $5000/mo for a studio.
They're also tripping over themselves to kick every rent stabilized (and statistically-insignificant rent controlled) renter to the invisible corners of the city where their less career-blessed asses belong.
I hear you but for most people that translates to "don't be born there".
Most of the same people who would tell you if you can't afford it move out are the same people who think NYC should be a sanctuary city for illegal immigrants because they were born in unfortunate circumstances and desire a better life.
I've moved in and out of NYC several times and each of those moves ended up costing between 5k and 10k in expenses. Broke people can't afford that shit.
I don’t think “don’t be born there” applies to NYC anyway. Less than half of the residents were born in NY state. (So some percent less than that born in NYC itself.)
We need ‘some’ method to allocate residences, and price seems to be the best one we have.
Maybe give people $10k in loans to move out of NYC… they’ll more than save that money by committing from another state.
You know not everyone works in tech? Or has a job that is not as available anywhere else? Or has elderly parents to support? Or lives in subsidized housing that is difficult to secure elsewhere? Or doesn't actually have the disposable income required to relocate? The NYC area accounts for ~10% GDP for the richest country in the world. Why doesn't everyone just move? [GTFOH](https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=GTFOH)
If you can't move, and cannot work remotely, there are still lots of other options including finding work literally anywhere in driving distance that isn't below 59th St in Manhattan.
Honestly NYC is a shit show and I don't know why people live there. SI to Manhattan takes like 2 hours at best. You don't even really get any benefit from living in NYC in the outer boroughs.
A congestion tax isn’t “blaming drivers”, it’s just creating an incentive for them not to drive.
Most of the cost of delivery is labor. If a congestion tax successfully decreases congestion, overall delivery costs may actually go down. A lot of last-mile deliveries are done by bike (not subject to the charge) anyway because they’re more efficient.
Making something more expensive will actually lower costs? That only works sometimes if you make something prohibitively expensive that new methods have to be developed. For instance, if you banned horses in cities pre car, that may spur innovation of cars. Don't see how that applies here.
NYC is very mismanaged in terms of cars and parking. Double parking is the norm and the way the city deals with it is to use tickets as a form of rent. Every single delivery truck gets multiple tickets a day and I think they have some deal worked out that they prepay some amount of their tickets. So instead of solving the problem regarding delivery vehicles the city just lets them break the law and fines them.
None of this stuff is meant to be preventative . It's all about money.
> Making something more expensive will actually lower costs?
Yes, this isn't uncommon. Besides the example you gave of developing new methods, if costs are high due to supply shortages causing production delays, then increasing the price of those supplies can lower overall costs if it results in higher and more predictable supply.
In the case of the supply shortage of NYC roadway space I do not know if $15 is high enough to lower travel times, but if it is then I can absolutely see it lowering delivery costs.
As a thought experiment, if someone built private tunnels throughout lower Manhattan that allowed drivers to bypass most traffic and charged $15 per day for access, what fraction of delivery drivers would choose to pay that versus sit in traffic and make fewer deliveries?
> Making something more expensive will actually lower costs?
Yes. The key in this case is that you’re making a finite resource (road space) more expensive for everyone, forcing a more efficient use of that limited resource.
