SAVE CONGESTION PRICING
Congestion pricing is NYC’s plan to reduce traffic and fund the MTA by adding a toll driving into the CBD. It will result in cleaner air, safer streets, better transit, and less traffic for drivers who need to drive. It encourages drivers to take transit or drive at off-peak hours.
Gov. Kathy Hochul CANCELED congestion pricing just 25 days before it was set to go into effect. She said that it would “create another obstacle to our economic recovery.”
Opponents of congestion pricing say that congestion pricing is expensive and hurts low and middle class New Yorkers, as well as disabled New Yorkers. Many say that they as a resident in Manhattan they should not have to pay to drive home.
However, there are discounts for low income New Yorkers, and exemptions for disabled New Yorkers. Many say that it benefits the rich and harms the poor and working class. Additionally, many say that people from Staten Island can’t take transit because it doesn’t exist.
To the argument of driving home from residents of the CBD, it encourages residents to park uptown and take transit down if they can’t or don’t want to pay the toll. It’s not ideal, but it helps create less traffic.
I think that most importantly, less traffic saves lives. Emergency vehicles in NYC are often stuck in gridlock in the moments were seconds count. Congestion pricing and less traffic allows emergency services to reach their destinations faster.
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