$15 Per Passage Fee: New York Adopts Urban Toll to Replenish Its Metro

A megacity with incredible car and truck traffic, New York is expected to install the first urban toll at the entrance to an American city in June, a controversial project but intended to reduce traffic jams and pollution and above all to replenish the metro's financial resources. .

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The $15 direct tax, levied at the entrance to midtown Manhattan, one of the five New York boroughs, has a threefold goal: reduce congestion on major thoroughfares and streets that irrigate the island from north to south and to the west, thereby improving the Big Apple's air quality and funding the budget for an overstretched metro network in poor condition. solves

The board of directors of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), the city's public subway and commuter rail operator, voted 11 to one in favor of the toll Wednesday evening.

Its CEO Janno Lieber welcomed “one of the board's most important votes” in a press release, assuring that “the MTA is ready.”

“One of the main goals was to finally solve traffic jams, but at the other end of the chain, to invest more in the public transport network,” he recalled.

The MTA, which saw its ridership plummet during the pandemic, hopes to reap a $1 billion annual windfall.

If the federal state agrees and administrative appeals from neighboring New Jersey or taxis and VTCs do not block the project, New York will become the first city in the United States to offer such a toll in mid-June.

Following the examples of London, Stockholm and Singapore.

Cars and vans entering from 60th Street in Manhattan and southbound from Queens and Brooklyn (across the East River) or New Jersey (across the Hudson River) pay $15 during the day and $3.75 at night.

Trucks and coaches will have to pay $24 to $36, while the popular yellow taxis can add $1.25 per trip, the MTA said.

Emergency vehicles are exempt, and low-income drivers in a city hit by high inequality and inflation are eligible for discounts.

The project dates back to 2007, when billionaire Michael Bloomberg was mayor.

But this principle was only implemented in 2019 under left-wing former mayor Bill de Blasio, the predecessor of Eric Adams, a center-right ex-police officer.

The municipality is pursuing progressive, social and environmental policies, and New York City is already saddled with tolls on the expressways, bridges and tunnels that serve its large suburbs.