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Fort Lee mayor sues over congestion pricing, claims program will cause more asthma in NJ
By
Elizabeth Shwe
Published Nov 1, 2023
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Congressman Josh Gottheimer/Facebook
By
Elizabeth Shwe
Published Nov 1, 2023
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The mayor of Fort Lee, New Jersey filed a federal lawsuit on Wednesday that aims to stop the MTA’s congestion pricing program, claiming the tolls planned for Manhattan would increase air pollution in the Garden State.
Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich said the program — which aims to charge drivers who enter Manhattan south of 60th Street — will lead to more drivers entering via the George Washington Bridge in order to avoid the fees. The lawsuit argues that the potential bump in traffic on the New Jersey side of the bridge will cause more air pollution, harming people in the area with respiratory diseases like asthma.
The legal challenge was filed against the Federal Highway Administration, the MTA and the MTA panel tasked with setting the price of the tolls. Sokolich also included Fort Lee resident Richard Galler, who said he has asthma, as a co-plaintiff, and aims to find more people in the area with respiratory issues to join the lawsuit.
Sokolich told Gothamist his town, which sits at the foot of the George Washington Bridge, can’t handle any more cars coming to or from the Hudson River crossing.
“Our cup is completely full — not another drip of traffic could we possibly absorb,” said Sokolich. “We can’t even handle an additional 1%. As it is, our emergency first responders are jogging to calls during traffic gridlock.”
“We’re being ignored, we’re being disregarded, we derive no benefit from this," he said. "It’s just simply not fair.”
The lawsuit calls for a New Jersey federal judge to halt the congestion pricing program, which the MTA plans to launch in the spring. And if a judge does not stop the tolls, the lawsuit demands that New York establish a monitoring program to “evaluate and treat respiratory distress and asthma resulting” from the program.
The suit also calls for New York to set up a fund to “help defray the increased costs to drivers who are forced to pay the increased cost of going through the Holland or Lincoln tunnels.”
The MTA’s environmental assessment on congestion pricing released last year found that traffic could in fact increase on the George Washington Bridge as a result of congestion pricing.
But MTA spokesperson John McCarthy said the program will create cleaner air because the tolls will discourage many drivers from entering Manhattan’s central business district. That's the goal of the program, along with funding $15 billion in upgrades to New York's mass transit infrastructure.
“News flash: Manhattan is already full of vehicles and we don’t need more carbon emissions,” McCarthy said in a statement. “So congestion pricing needs to move forward for less traffic, safer streets, cleaner air and huge improvements to mass transit.”
It’s the second time an elected official in New Jersey has filed a federal lawsuit over congestion pricing. Gov. Phil Murphy filed a separate suit in July against the Federal Highway Administration, arguing the agency gave a “rubber stamp” to the tolls.
Later this month, the MTA’s panel is expected to recommend the cost of the congestion pricing tolls — which could range from $9 to $23 on weekdays. The MTA board will then need to approve the pricing structure and build out the new tolling equipment before the agency launches the program next year.
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new jersey
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Elizabeth Shwe
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