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Congestion pricing panel wrestles with how much to charge taxis and trucks
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Stephen Nessen
Published Oct 27, 2023
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Marc A. Hermann/MTA
By
Stephen Nessen
Published Oct 27, 2023
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As an MTA panel prepares to recommend the cost of tolls for Manhattan's congestion pricing program, some members tell Gothamist there are two questions still up for debate: how much to charge trucks, and the fee structure for taxis and for-hire vehicles.
The six-member Traffic Mobility Review Board has held three public meetings on how much the tolls should cost drivers who enter Manhattan south of 60th Street. The review board is also expected to recommend which drivers in the toll zone should get exemptions or credits.
During the last Traffic Mobility Review Board meeting in October, the group presented four tolling scenarios under consideration. All the options included charging small trucks, such as a box truck, two times the rate of passenger vehicles. Large trucks, like an 18-wheeler, would be tolled at three times the rate.
The base rate has not been determined, but could be as high as $23.
Behind the scenes, the panel is wrestling with how the trucking industry will respond to congestion pricing, and whether to give taxis a discount on the tolls compared to for-hire competitors like Uber and Lyft, two members of the panel said.
The panel is expected to make its recommendation next month.
One Traffic Mobility Review Board member spoke to Gothamist on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. Another board member, Transport Workers Union President John Samuelsen, spoke on the record, corroborating what the other member said.
Some board members believe that many trucking companies will eat the congestion pricing fee and continue traveling into Manhattan because of the savings in both time and fuel saved due to less traffic, the two board members said.
Samuelsen is on the other side of the big-rig debate. He fears the tolls will prompt trucks to circumvent the zone south of 60th Street, bringing more traffic and pollution to other neighborhoods in the city.
Taxi and for-hire vehicle drivers have advocated for exemptions from congestion pricing.
Kena Betancur/VIEWpress via Getty Images
The MTA’s environmental assessment of congestion pricing also found the tolls will result in more trucks on streets outside of Manhattan. The higher the price of tolls, the more trucks will divert to some residential areas. The federal government had concerns about hundreds of new trucks on the Cross Bronx Expressway and required the MTA to pledge $130 million to mitigate the environmental effects in the borough with notoriously high asthma rates.
“If the tolling gets jacked up enough, the trucks that can divert are gonna divert and they're gonna divert to residential neighborhoods. And those diversions are gonna bring about problems that everybody's been trying to avoid,” said Samuelsen, who was appointed to the board by Mayor Eric Adams. “Diversions through the South Bronx, more diversions through Staten Island, which members of the board, including me, are looking to avoid.”
Kendra Hems, president of the Trucking Association of New York, said “there’s a misconception about the trucking industry and how much we can bear in terms of additional costs.” She said smaller trucking outfits typically operate on a profit margin of 1% or 2%.
“It really, disproportionately affects small businesses, both trucking companies as well as the small businesses located in the zone,” said Hems.
Traffic analyst Charles Komanoff, a longtime congestion pricing advocate, disagreed. He predicts truck drivers are not going to change their behavior once the tolls are implemented.
“The net result is there's not even going to be that much of a change [in truck traffic],” said Komanoff, who created a tool used by the state to analyze the impacts of congestion pricing. “They're mostly going to continue doing what they'll do because the increased cost out of pocket of the toll will be more than offset by the time savings.”
The board isn’t just stuck on trucks, the two members said. They’re also debating how much Uber and Lyft drivers should pay compared to yellow cabs, members said.
The board is already required to take into consideration existing surcharges on for-hire vehicles and taxis that enter the congestion zone. Those charges cost $2.75 per for-hire vehicle trip and $2.50 per taxi trip.
Toll gantries have already been installed at some entrances to the congestion pricing toll zone.
Kena Betancur/VIEWpress
The scenarios laid out by the TMRB earlier this month would add an additional congestion pricing surcharge of up to $2 per trip for for-hire vehicles and up to $1.50 per trip for taxis.
A board member said several members of the group are pushing to give taxis an edge on the new tolls because, unlike Uber and Lyft, their rates are fixed and cannot surge during busy parts of the day.
At the last public meeting of the Traffic Mobility Review Board, panel members Kathryn Wylde and Carl Weisbrod asked a Department of Transportation representative about how much traffic in the toll zone is currently made up of taxis and for-hire vehicles.
The DOT representative at the meeting, Will Carry, said that as of 2019, half of the traffic at peak commuting times in Manhattan south of 60th Street were taxis and for-hire vehicles.
State law requires the review board to recommend a toll structure that brings in $1 billion a year. That money must be used by the MTA to take out $15 billion in loans for long overdue upgrades to mass transit.
MTA spokesperson John McCarthy did not respond directly to questions about the internal debates. But he said congestion pricing will work.
“Congestion pricing definitely reduces traffic, and also results in safer streets, cleaner air, and funds better transit,” McCarthy said in a statement. “The MTA appreciates the work of the TMRB and looks forward to its recommendations.”
The 23-member MTA board must vote on the Traffic Mobility Review Board’s recommendation. A date for that vote has not been set. The MTA hopes to activate the tolls next spring.
Tagged
manhattan
transportation
Stephen Nessen
Stephen Nessen covers transportation. Since 2008 he has reported on everything from Occupy Wall Street, the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site, Hurricane Sandy, to Trump’s campaign for president. His transportation reporting has taken him everywhere from the MTA’s secret Rail Control Center to the gleaming subways of Seoul. Got a tip? Email [email protected].
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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