New York City's Congestion Pricing Plan: Financial Burden, Infrastructure Band-Aid, or Globalist Agenda?
The government of New York City has come up with a great fundraising idea! Let’s charge the residents more money to commute to the city under a Congestion Pricing Plan to raise money to improve transportation infrastructure under a $15 billion capital improvement plan. As if the New York Government didn’t do enough to crush small businesses & place financial stress on residents during the ‘medical emergency’.
In June, I wrote an article about how New York City showed the rest of the country how fiscally irresponsible it is to offer its land as a ‘sanctuary city’ for migrants & have to deal with the associated cost.
The current budget deficit of New York City is projected to be $5.1 billion in fiscal year 2023 (FY23), which ends on June 30, 2024. This deficit is expected to grow to $7.9 billion in FY27, with cumulative gaps for the three-year period adding up to $19.8 billion.
The federal government has been ignoring Mayor Eric Adams’ pleas for additional funding to handle the migrant problem & the budget is billions short. New York City has to create additional ways to generate money as the transportation infrastructure is falling apart. Welcome to the Congestion Pricing Plan.
Using London, Stockholm, Milan, & Singapore as Models
New York City is modeling a fine structure similar to what the cities of London, Stockholm, Milan, & Singapore have implemented. Most recently, London implemented the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) on April 8, 2019.
The first ULEZ in the UK was implemented in London on April 8, 2019. It initially covered the same area as the existing T-Charge zone (Central London), but applied 24/7 instead of just weekdays. Since then, the ULEZ has been expanded twice:
October 25, 2021: ULEZ expanded to include the area within the North and South Circular roads.
August 29, 2023: ULEZ expanded to cover all of Greater London.
The Detrimental Impact of ULEZ Implementation Thus Far
While ULEZ has been credited with improving air quality in London, it has also faced criticism for its potential negative impact on residents. Some of the main concerns include:
Increased costs: Non-compliant vehicles (those not meeting the ULEZ emission standards) are subject to a daily charge of £12.50 for cars, vans, and motorcycles, and £100 for lorries, buses, and coaches. This can be a significant financial burden for residents who rely on their vehicles for work or everyday activities.
Reduced accessibility: The ULEZ can make it more difficult and expensive for residents to travel within London, particularly those who cannot afford to upgrade to a compliant vehicle. This can disproportionately impact low-income residents and those living in areas with limited public transport options.
Scrappage scheme limitations: While the scrappage scheme offered by the Greater London Authority (GLA) helps offset the cost of upgrading to a cleaner vehicle, it has been criticized for being insufficient and inaccessible to all residents.
Displacement of air pollution: Critics argue that the ULEZ may simply displace air pollution instead of reducing it, as drivers shift their travel habits to avoid the charge.
Enforcement concerns: Some residents have raised concerns about the potential for unfair enforcement of the ULEZ, particularly regarding the use of cameras to monitor compliance.
Economic impact: Businesses that rely on deliveries or have customers driving to their premises have expressed concerns that the ULEZ could negatively impact their trade.
Unhappy residents have dismantled thousands of pound sterling’s worth of camera equipment in protest.
ULEZ ‘Blade Runners’ & Their Trophies
The Congestion Pricing Plan
The area highlighted in orange will be the (initial) target of the New York City Congestion Pricing Plan. The targeted area is essentially where the majority of commuters have direct access to Manhattan from Long Island & New Jersey.
Image Credit: RPA
New York City’s Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) isn’t solely pushing the climate narrative for the tolls (which already exist on the bridges & tunnels into the city). New York State Governor, Kathy Hochul, tweeted “congestion pricing means cleaner air, better transit, and less gridlock on New York City streets” on the morning of December 5, 2023.
With a big smile on her face & a sense of pride, Governor Kathy Hochul brags about how New York will be the “very first state in the nation, the very first city in America to have a Congestion Pricing Plan.”
The Surface Cost of The Congestion Pricing Plan
Americans will have to pay around $23 per day to enter the Congestion Zone, which will be considered entering Manhattan south of 60th Street. The FDR Drive, West Side Highway, & Battery Park underpass will be exempt.:
Passenger Vehicles: $15
Trucks: $24-$36 (depending on size)
Motorcycles: $7.50
Taxi & Ride Sharing Application Fees:
Taxi Drivers - $1.25 Surcharge per Ride
Application Based Ride-Hail - $2.50 Surcharge per Ride
"The city has already decimated the taxi industry with years of unregulated, unchecked competition from Uber and Lyft, and the MTA seems poised to land a final blow to the prospect of stability and modest survival," Bhairavi Desai, executive director of the New York City Taxi Workers Alliance, said in a news release. "If this proposal is implemented, thousands of driver families will get dragged back into crisis-level poverty with no relief in sight."
The tolls would be charged once per day (except for the ride shares) & would be in effect on Weekdays between 5:00 a.m. & 9:00 p.m. & on Weekends between 9:00 a.m. & 9:00 p.m.
Traveling west from Long Island, the only free options into the city are via the Brooklyn Bridge, Manhattan Bridge, & Queensboro Bridge which are already traffic nightmares & tend to be out of the way. For example, If you were traveling from eastern Long Island to the Empire State Building, the most direct route is the Queens Midtown Tunnel at around 50 miles & a 1 hour 17 minute drive during the middle of the day on a random Wednesday. If you were to use either the Williamsburg or Queensboro Bridges, the trip would be between 51-54 miles & a 1 hour 42 minute drive, an additional 25 minutes during non-rush hours (but still considered peak in the plan). While the driver would be avoiding the $15 toll, he/she would be wasting fuel, time, & want to pull more of their hair out in traffic.
Funding Crumbling Infrastructure
The MTA has a $15 billion capital plan to fund. According to the MTA, “revenue from the tolls, projected to be roughly $1 billion annually, would be used to finance borrowing (via the sale of bonds) to upgrade the city’s mass transit systems.”
What if no one wants to buy the bonds because the economy is going down the crapper? Typical investors in bonds include; mutual funds, ETFs, insurance companies, pension funds, foreign investors, & central banks. If the economy enters a recession/depression, who is going to want to fund the additional $14 billion (assuming everything goes according to plan the first year)? As I previously mentioned, the Feds aren’t coming to bail out New York City.
Keep this in mind:
Backlog of repairs and maintenance: The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) alone faces a state-of-good-repair backlog exceeding $62 billion.
The MTA alone in New York City is in the hole $62 billion. The $62 billion doesn’t even consider other backlogs by the New York City Department of Transportation (NYC DOT) & The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey (PANYNJ). $1 billion per year won’t even put a dent in the backlog! If you have ever driven to/from/within New York City like I have, you already know they aren’t using the tolls to improve the roads. Especially after a winter season where potholes can take out your tires & cause $1000+ in oil pan damages (yes, that one hurt)!
The MTA has already struggled to collect at cashless toll plazas with up to 5% failing to pay.
Pre-existing Tolls to Enter New York City
New York City is already expensive to enter on a daily basis considering the existing toll structure:
Entering New York Locations:
Port Authority Crossings: 2 Axles Single Rear Wheels in Off-Peak & Peak Hours with E-Z Pass
George Washington Bridge, Goethals Bridge, Bayonne Bridge, Outerbridge Crossing, Lincoln Tunnel, Holland Tunnel - $12.75 off peak, $14.75 peak, $17.00 Tolls by Mail All Hours
Current Port Authority Toll Schedule
MTA Bridges and Tunnels: Passenger Vehicle Rates E-Z Pass, Mid-Tier, Tolls by Mail for One-Way Travel
Throgs Neck Bridge, Bronx-Whitestone Bridge, Robert F. Kennedy Bridge, Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, Queens Midtown Tunnel, Hugh L. Carey Tunnel - $6.94, $9.11, $11.19
Henry Hudson Bridge - $3.18, $5.04, $8.25
Cross Bay Bridge & Marine Parkway Bridge - $2.60, $4.11, $5.60
In the congestion pricing model, drivers who enter through the Queens-Midtown, Hugh I. Carey, Holland, & Lincoln Tunnels would get a $5 crossing credit. So $15 - $5 = $10 + $14.75 peak hours = $24.75
Low-income drivers who earn less than $50,000 a year can apply to pay half the price on the daytime toll, but only after the first 10 trips in a month.
While not an exemption, there will also be so-called "crossing credits" for drivers using any of the four tunnels to get into Manhattan. That means those who already pay at the Lincoln or Holland Tunnel, for example, will not pay the full congestion fee. The credit amounts to $5 per ride for passenger vehicles, $2.50 for motorcycles, $12 for small trucks and $20 for large trucks.
Drivers from Long Island and Queens using the Queens-Midtown Tunnel will get the same break, as will those using the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel. Those who come over the George Washington Bridge and go south of 60th Street would see no such discount, however. Source: NBC NY
New York City Residents are Already Income Taxed at a Higher Rate
Approximately 20% of the NYC workforce are commuters, meaning they live outside of the city and travel into NYC for work. This equates to about 1 million workers entering the city each day. 80% of the New York City workforce pay the below taxes for the ‘privilege’ of not having to commute every day:
New Jersey Lawsuits
Last summer, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy has filed a federal lawsuit over congestion pricing back in July of this year stating:
"The Traffic Mobility Review Board’s recommended credit structure is wholly inadequate, especially the total lack of toll credits for the George Washington Bridge, which will lead to toll shopping, increased congestion in underserved communities, and excessive tolling at New Jersey crossings into Manhattan,"
Governor Murphy went the route of claiming a proper Environmental Impact Study (EIS) was not conducted. An MTA representative dismissed the lawsuit threat by stating there was a 4,000 page EIS conducted & it should stand against any lawsuit. Source: Fox 5 NY
On November 1, 2023, the Mayor of Fort Lee, New Jersey, Mark Sokolich in conjunction with Representative Josh Gottheimer, announced the second lawsuit from the State of New Jersey against New York City’s congestion pricing.
More vehicles would go through Fort Lee on the way to the George Washington Bridge once congestion pricing took effect, because drivers would avoid Midtown Manhattan and the new tolls.
The lawsuit, a potential class-action proceeding with Sokolich and a Fort Lee resident who has asthma as plaintiffs, asserts that congestion pricing would increase pollutants like nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxide in Fort Lee.
Gottheimer, whose district includes Fort Lee and who has long opposed congestion pricing, said the tolling system would add $5,000 a year to the price commuters paid to drive to work in New York.
“That’s on top of the $17 they pay a day already to cross the bridge or go into the tunnel,” he said. “That’s on top of parking. It’s on top of gas and the billions of dollars Jersey residents pay every year to New York in income taxes.”Source: NY Times
The semi-funny part is, not even electric vehicle drivers are exempt from paying the congestion fees.
But I don’t Live in New York City (or plan to), Why Does This Matter?
Everything matters my fellow Warriors. When a city claims to be the ‘first’ at something, especially when it comes to controlling people’s driving habits & charging fines & fees for what we used to think was the inalienable right to travel in this country, it will not be the last city to do so. The poison has already taken hold in the east & once it touches New York City, it will spread to other budget stricken traffic congested cities in America.
Examining how this fits into the big picture agenda of the World Economic Forum & Agenda 2030, we must consider the end goal of crippling humanity via ‘The 15 Minute City’ & the transition from petrol cars to electric cars to no cars (except for the very wealthy of course). If you cannot afford to drive, you won’t.
Not Tin-Foil Hat - Actual Graphic From a 2016 Article on the WEF Website
The New York traffic fines & fees creep started with tolls on the highways & bridges & moved to High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes & incentives for electric vehicles. Today, the fines & fees keep inching higher, HOV lanes are just as crowded during peak hours (and limited to just one lane), & traffic is pretty much the same as it always was. Nothing was solved.
The net-zero carbon climate goals weren’t meant to be achieved. Fun fact: YOU are part carbon!
About 18.5% of the human body is made of carbon. This makes it the fourth most abundant element in the body, after oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen.
The elusive climate, pollution, & traffic goals are meant to push a narrative. To gradually bankrupt & enslave the world population in the name of ‘the greater good’.
What can my Fellow Warriors do About it?
Hang on to Your Gas/Diesel Powered Vehicles - Have at least one gas/diesel powered vehicle in your family. They may ban future dealer sales or attempt to make it really expensive to drive but it may be worth hiding one in the garage. Replacement batteries for electric vehicles are ridiculously expensive & you can’t just replace it in the driveway at home. Not to mention, they may be harder to direct/control via satellite.
Be Wary of Political Candidate’s Agendas Before Election Day - Read between the lines of their stated environmental goals & be aware of which groups they tend to align with. Before it becomes an issue in your city, let your voices be heard that increased tolls will not be tolerated. Do not elect representatives who propose fundraising via tolls/congestion fines/fees or talk about promoting ‘smart city’ initiatives.
If traffic congestion plans are already being implemented:
Individual Action:
Contact Your Elected Officials: Express your opposition to the toll increase and explain how it will negatively impact you. You can do this by phone, email, attending town halls, or writing letters to the editor.
Join or Form a Protest Group: There may already be existing groups protesting the toll increase. You can join them to amplify your voice and participate in organized actions. If no such group exists, consider starting one yourself.
Spread Awareness: Talk to your friends, family, and neighbors about the toll increase and how it will affect them. Share information on social media and encourage others to get involved.
Boycott the tolls: If possible, avoid driving in congested areas where the tolls are being implemented. This will show the authorities that you are not willing to pay the increased fees.
Participate in public hearings: Many cities hold public hearings on proposed toll increases. This is your opportunity to speak out against the increase and voice your concerns.
Support alternative transportation options: Advocate for improved public transportation, cycling infrastructure, and carpooling initiatives to reduce the need for driving in congested areas.
Collective Action:
Organize a Protest: Organize a peaceful protest near the affected roadways or government buildings. This will attract media attention and show the authorities that you are serious about your opposition.
File a Lawsuit or Join a Class-Action Suit: If you believe the toll increase is illegal or unfair, you may consider filing a lawsuit against the authorities. This should be done with the help of a lawyer specializing in environmental or transportation law.
Lobby for Legislative Changes: Advocate for changes in state or local laws that would limit the ability of authorities to impose tolls. This will require working with your elected officials and other advocacy groups.
Support Alternative Transportation Initiatives: Donate to or volunteer with organizations that are working to improve public transportation, cycling infrastructure, and other sustainable transportation options.
Combining individual and collective actions can create a stronger impact and increase the chances of influencing the authorities. Remain peaceful but persistent in your protests.
In addition to all this, consider Governor Hochul fought to have Rule 2.13 reinstated (the Rule was voided in July 2022 by State Supreme Court Justice Ronald Ploetz). See Rule 2.13:
Rule 2.13: the Commissioner of Health or local health department can issue an isolation or quarantine order, at whim, without proof of infection, and can force someone to remain in their home, or send them to ‘other residential or temporary housing… or other locations as the public health authority issuing the order deems appropriate.”
They forgot to include the word - indefinitely. This is the type of control these ‘leaders’ (which are supposed to serve the public) seek to impose on the residents of their state. Take a long hard look about where you live & who you vote for.
Until next time my fellow Warriors, stay informed, stay vigilant, Ever Forward!
May 2007 - Former NYC Resident - Sad to See it Destroyed