It Might Soon Cost $11 To Enter Manhattan: Report

MANHATTAN, NY — Drivers entering parts of Manhattan would have to pay an $11.52 toll starting in two years under a congestion pricing plan released Friday. The proposal by Gov. Andrew Cuomo's Fix NYC task force also includes surcharges for taxis and for-hire cars and a heftier $25.34 toll for trucks.

The plan aims to attack what it calls the dual "crises" of subway breakdowns and traffic congestion. It could raise as much as $1.5 billion a year for long-term fixes to the city's languishing subway system while alleviating traffic on Manhattan streets, where taxis move slower than 10 MPH on average.

The tolls would apply to any drivers entering Manhattan below 60th Street, but the FDR Drive north of the Brooklyn Bridge would remain free, giving cars a way around the toll zone. The zone for proposed $2 to $5 surcharges on taxi and black-car trips would extend north to 9th Street.

Drivers wouldn't have to pay a toll to leave Manhattan, the report says.

The panel recommended phasing in the plan over the next two years. Tolls for all vehicles wouldn't go into effect until 2020, giving the MTA time to stabilize the subway system. But the state and city should get moving this year to strongly enforce traffic and laws, reform the Taxi and Limousine Commission and make plans for installing toll infrastructure, the report says.

"To remain a world-class city and region, New York must address the increasing congestion on our roadways and bring the subway system back to a reliable state," the report says. "The Fix NYC Panel’s proposed strategies in this report are the first step toward tackling congestion and providing a dedicated funding stream for the region’s future transportation needs."

Unlike prior congestion pricing proposals, the Fix NYC plan would not charge drivers to cross the city's East River bridges, as Cuomo has said. That means drivers could cross the Brooklyn Bridge or the Ed Koch Queensborough Bridge at 59th Street and continue onto the FDR Drive for free. But the Williamsburg and Manhattan bridges lead directly to streets within the toll zone, as The New York Times first noted.

Cuomo has said sensors on city streets would scan drivers' EZ Pass devices or bill them by mail, similar to the cashless tolling system on outer-borough bridges.

The plan gives three options for when the tolls would apply. Each would raise a different amount of revenue. Charging drivers from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekdays would supply about $810 million annually from cars and trucks alone. The addition of noon to 10 p.m. on weekends would make it $1,025,000. Imposing tolls 24 hours a day, with different rates depending on the hour, could raise about $1.1 billion.

Cuomo has pledged a congestion pricing plan since the subway crisis peaked last summer. He convened the Fix NYC commission in October, stacking it with former MTA leaders, elected officials and business leaders.

The panel delivered its proposal Friday to the governor and the state Legislature, which would need to approve many parts of it. State lawmakers have expressed skepticism about congestion pricing. Another proposal pushed by then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg died in Albany a decade ago.

If the Legislature were to approve the plan this year, per-ride surcharges of $2 to $5 for taxis and for-hire vehicles could go in place within a year, with car and truck tolls starting the following year.

The proposal is modeled on congestion pricing schemes in major international cities such as Singapore, London, Stockholm and Milan. Those cities adopted congestion plans at least a decade ago — Singapore's dates to 1975 — but opposition from residents and public officials has killed several in New York City since the 1970s.

Stockholm's plan faced similarly hostile opposition when it was implemented in 2006, but it has "proved successful from day one," the report says. Since then congestion there has dropped 25 percent, vehicle speeds are up 25 percent, carbon emissions in the city center have dropped as much as 14 percent and the program collects $100 million annually.

The plan faces big political obstacles, both in Albany and the city.

Mayor Bill de Blasio has opposed congestion pricing, saying it would hurt working-class and poor people who drive to Manhattan from the outer boroughs, though there's little evidence to support many such people would be effected.

The Democratic mayor seemed to warm to the Fix NYC proposal Friday morning, calling it a "step in the right direction" on WNYC's "The Brian Lehrer Show." He praised its steps to address his concerns about how congestion pricing would impact Brooklyn and Queens, who would have borne an "undue burden" under past proposals.

But he wants the plan to state explicitly that congestion toll revenue could only fund the city's buses and subways to prevent officials from using it for other purposes. He continued promoting his "millionaire's tax," an income tax hike for rich New Yorkers to fund the subways and MetroCards for low-income New Yorkers. Cuomo and state legislators have opposed the idea.

"Although I see some good elements in this new plan, I still think the millionaire's tax should still be the leading edge of how we solve the larger MTA problem," de Blasio said.

While he praised the plan broadly, Cuomo himself wants some changes, saying it should decrease tolls on the outer-borough bridges to reduce the costs of travel between them. A proposal backed by the advocacy group MoveNY included such toll cuts.

"(A)s a born and raised Queens boy, I have outer borough blood in my veins, and it is my priority that we keep costs down for hard working New Yorkers, and encourage use of mass transit," Cuomo said in a statement.

Read the full Fix NYC report below.

(Lead image: Cars and pedestrians travel through Manhattan in March 2017. Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)