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.
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.