- Trump ended NYC’s congestion pricing after just two months, leaving the program in chaos.
- The move ends a short-lived program that made NYC the most expensive city to drive in.
- Manhattan’s traffic dropped by 9% in January, proving the toll’s effectiveness before it ended.
Driving into Manhattan below 60th Street costs $9 today (between 5 a.m. and 9 p.m.) but that’s about to change. Donald Trump and his administration are doing away with a toll that lasted less than two full months. New York’s Governor says she’ll fight Trump’s move but it’s unclear what power she has to do so.
“CONGESTION PRICING IS DEAD. Manhattan, and all of New York, is SAVED. LONG LIVE THE KING!” said Trump on social media. He made a promise on the campaign trail to kill congestion pricing and sure enough, that’s what just took place. In a letter to Governor Kathy Hochul, US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy called the congestion pricing a “slap in the face to working-class Americans and small business owners.”
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The program, which started on January 5, has now lost its funding. The Federal Highway Administration will work with the New York State Department of Transportation to end the program in an orderly way. Notably, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has already filed a lawsuit to block the termination of the program.
For her part, Hochul says that the toll cameras will remain though it’s unclear if that will matter. “President Donald Trump tweeted, ‘Long live the king.’ I’m here to say New York hasn’t labored under a king in over 250 years,” she told NBC News at Grand Central Terminal in New York City. “And we sure as hell are not going to start now.”
She went even further to say that “Donald Trump isn’t a “king” and we won’t let him use New Yorkers as roadkill on his revenge tour. We’ll see him in court.” Regardless of her rhetoric, it does seem as though traffic in NYC is down which is a major point of congestion pricing. That’s the case according to MTA CEO and Chairman Janno Lieber.
Apparently, traffic in Manhattan dropped by nine percent in January. That amounts to some 1.2 million vehicles entering the city. Michael Gerrard, a Columbia Law School professor told the New York Post that “the Federal Highway Administration approved congestion pricing and allowed it to start up. It has survived several court challenges. It’s not at all clear that they can legally revoke the approval now. This new decision is likely to be back in court before long, and meanwhile, the tolls will probably stay in place unless a judge rules otherwise.” What happens next is anyone’s guess.