Gothamist
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Gothamist
Listen Live
News
Biden's DOT Lifts Roadblock On Congestion Pricing In NYC
By
Christopher Robbins
Published Mar 30, 2021
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Never miss a story
Email address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .
JUSTIN LANE/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
By
Christopher Robbins
Published Mar 30, 2021
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
We rely on your support to make local news available to all
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
The Federal Department of Transportation has finally lifted the administrative hurdle for New York to begin charging drivers to enter Manhattan below 60th Street, two months after congestion pricing was supposed to go into effect.
While the congestion pricing plan was passed by the state legislature in 2019, it still needed federal approval before the start date of January of 2021. For more than a year, the Trump administration blocked the project by refusing to tell New York whether the plan would require a costly and lengthy "Environmental Impact Statement," or a simpler "Environmental Assessment."
On Tuesday, the Federal Highway Administration, which is now overseen by President Joe Biden's federal DOT Commissioner Pete Buttigieg, said the project would move forward under the assessment.
"An EA generally requires less time to complete than an Environmental Impact Statement should no significant impacts be identified," the Federal Highway Administration wrote in a statement concerning the announcement.
Congestion pricing is projected to reap $1 billion in tolls each year, which would then generate $15 billion in bonds that the MTA desperately needs to make critical capital improvements to the subway system, in addition to making New York City's air cleaner by eliminating hundreds of thousands of metric tons of pollution from the atmosphere.
Both Governor Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio praised the announcement.
“We need congestion pricing," said de Blasio, a former congestion pricing skeptic, at his daily morning press conference. "We need to make sure we have the resources to bring back the subways and buses strong. We need obviously to continue to address congestion itself. This is really good news.”
However, it's not clear how long the Environmental Assessment will take. Streetsblog obtained a draft plan from the MTA in which the agency laid out a plan for completing an environmental review in three months. Doug Hecox, a spokesperson for the FHWA, told Gothamist that the process could take a few months or "a couple of years," depending on the volume of public input.
Asked if the Biden administration could have just waived the requirement altogether, Hecox replied, "Not possible—plans involving tolls on parts of the National Highway System require federal environmental rules be observed and one is that an environmental review is needed."
There is also the matter of how much the tolls will cost, and who will have to pay for them. That is a political battle that New York has foisted onto an entity called the Traffic Mobility Review Board.
That six-member board—five of them appointed by the governor, one of them by the mayor—is supposed to be under the supervision of the MTA, which is controlled by the governor. Police officers, Staten Islanders, New Jersey residents, and all New York City residents are just some of the groups that state lawmakers have suggested should be exempt from the tolls. The more carveouts that are forced into the plan, the less effective congestion pricing becomes at raising revenue and cutting pollution.
The MTA told Gothamist that they had no update on when the review board would be created.
“With this guidance on an environmental assessment now in hand, the MTA is ready to hit the ground running to implement the Central Business District Tolling Program," MTA Chairman and CEO Pay Foye said in a statement, using the bureaucratic name for congestion pricing.
"We are already working on preliminary design for the roadway toll system and infrastructure, and we look forward to working with our colleagues at the Federal Highway Administration to conduct the review and broad public outreach so that we can move forward with the remainder of the program as soon as possible.”
Danny Harris, the executive director at Transportation Alternatives, said that his group was "thankful" for the federal approval.
"If we want our streets to prioritize people, not cars, congestion pricing is key. Congestion pricing will make our neighborhoods healthier, our transit better, and our city fairer," Harris said in a statement. "Now we must make sure that the program launches without further delay, and to its fullest potential."
Tagged
MTA
congestion pricing
Christopher Robbins
Christopher Robbins is a New York City reporter covering transportation, affordable housing, local politics, and criminal justice. His work has also appeared in New York Magazine, The Village Voice and The New York Times. Chris is a graduate of Patrick Henry High School in Roanoke, Virginia, and enjoys biking to Fort Tilden in the summertime.
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
MORE news
NYC has a plan to stop homeless people from cycling between hospitals and the streets
The Bridge to Home program, which began last year, will officially expand to Brooklyn on Tuesday.
By
Karen Yi
Published Sep 29, 2026 at 8:00 a.m. ET
Early Addition: Billy Joel is auctioning off 70 of his motorcycles
Because he doesn't need that many bikes, here are your early links: NYC Ferry fares could be going up, Hell's Kitchen climbing gym closing, Jalen Brunson just wasn't that funny on SNL and more.
By
James Ramsay
News
Early Addition: Billy Joel is auctioning off 70 of his motorcycles
Because he doesn't need that many bikes, here are your early links: NYC Ferry fares could be going up, Hell's Kitchen climbing gym closing, Jalen Brunson just wasn't that funny on SNL and more.
By
James Ramsay
Man dragged to death by Subway in Brooklyn after getting caught on closing doors
By
Brittany Kriegstein
Upper East Side braces for affordable housing fast track, and backlash from residents
By
David Brand
Plan to modernize NYC's diesel-spewing produce market falls apart under Mamdani
By
Elizabeth Kim
Never miss a story
Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.
Sign upEmail address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .