With feds' blessing, governor presses ahead with congestion pricing
NEW YORK - Add congestion pricing to the list of firsts for NYC, as Governor Kathy Hochul explained before a room full of stakeholders Tuesday afternoon.
U.S. Transportation officials have given the go-ahead for a still undetermined toll to drivers who enter Manhattan south of 60th Street.
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The proposed hikes would increase the base fare of a subway ride from $2.75 to $2.90, while a monthly pass would go up from $127 to $132, along with other changes.
The MTA says congestion pricing will reduce traffic in the Central Business District by 20% while generating upwards of a billion dollars a year in revenue. Nonetheless, fare hikes for straphangers appear to be forthcoming.
Among the most vocal opponents of the plan are Taxi drivers and ride-share companies, who say congestion pricing unfairly penalizes their industry.
Bhairavi Desai, Executive Director of the NY Taxi Workers Alliance, says "We need an exemption for yellow cabs and an exemption for Uber and Lyft drivers. There should be a nominal fee that the passengers pay."
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We asked the Governor about exemptions and to whom they would apply.
The Governor says "There is a board of individuals listening to all recommendations from the public, affected communities, people in transportation, commuters. There's a lot of data that will be digested over the next few months, and they'll make a determination on what the rate should be for individual classes, times of day."
When asked to respond to a possible lawsuit from NJ Governor Phil Murphy against congestion pricing both Hochul and Lieber said no comment citing possible pending litigation.