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What data is the MTA collecting with those traffic cameras?

By

Catalina Gonella

Published Oct 25, 2024

Modified Oct 29, 2024

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Lindsey Nicholson/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

By

Catalina Gonella

Published Oct 25, 2024

Modified Oct 29, 2024

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This column originally appeared in On The Way, a weekly newsletter covering everything you need to know about NYC-area transportation.

Sign up to get the full version, which includes answers to reader questions, trivia, service changes and more, in your inbox every Thursday.

Congestion pricing is still paused due to Gov. Kathy Hochul’s edict, but the camera technology the MTA installed to automatically collect the Manhattan tolls has been up and running since earlier this year.

Now, Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine wants the MTA to release the data the toll readers have collected — specifically the number of “ghost cars” that pass through the borough.

The camera technology — which cost taxpayers $550 million — was designed to automatically track and toll cars driving below 60th Street by using E-ZPass readers and cameras to photograph vehicle license plates.

Levine says the toll readers could serve an alternative purpose while Hochul weighs whether to turn on the tolls: shedding light on just how many cars in the city have fake, obscured or missing plates. Last week he sent MTA Bridges and Tunnel President Cathy Sheridan a letter asking for the data to be made public.

“This is an enormous problem costing our city — including the MTA — hundreds of millions of dollars a year in lost revenue, as well as preventing law enforcement from properly cracking down on individuals who speed past school zones and run red lights,” he wrote. “Obtaining more data to assess the scale of the problem is critical.”

The information collected by the cameras could provide unprecedented detail about the vehicles entering the busiest part of Manhattan, including the types of vehicles, how many of them there are, when they're entering Manhattan, and whether they have valid plates.

Levine has for months pushed for a more aggressive crackdown on ghost cars, and has pressured websites that sell the phony plates to ban them. He also published a report on the topic.

“We were surprised at how hard it was to get recent data on this — we ended up doing our best with estimates and it still tells a pretty compelling story about how bad the problem is, but we have become frustrated with how hard it is to get a fix on the scale of the problem,” he said. “We got a long way to go and getting accurate data is a big part of it.”

He said the problem is getting worse in his borough, and is likely to become more dire if congestion pricing is activated, which would give drivers another incentive to obscure their license plates.

“This is about to get a lot worse, the time to solve this is now,” he said. “We've got this wonderful asset. We've got the readers up. So let's not wait until they're activated and we realize, ‘oh my God, a huge percent of plates are unreadable.’”

MTA spokesperson Aaron Donovan said the agency “has received BP Levine’s letter and we are reviewing it.”

Curious Commuter

Have a question about subway cars (or literally anything else NYC-transit related)? Use this form to submit yours and we may answer it in a future newsletter! But note that Curious Commuter questions are exclusive for On The Way newsletter subscribers. Sign up for free here.

Question from Jerry in Manhattan

It is understood that fares on the NYC subway and buses are subsidized. If the fares weren't subsidized, approximately how much would fares increase to cover operating costs? What would a non-discounted fare be?

Answer

Transit fares cover just 27% of the MTA’s roughly $20 billion annual budget — and the agency’s bridge and tunnel tolls cover another 13%. The rest — or about $12 billion a year — comes from dedicated taxes and other local subsidies. If elected officials wanted to get rid of those subsidies, they’d need to find a way to rake in that much more in fare and toll revenue.

In theory, using back-of-the-napkin math, that would require multiplying those fares and tolls by a measure of 2.5 (that’d put the base subway fare at $7.25). But there’s no guarantee that jacking the prices would actually lead to the MTA’s revenue increasing by the same margin: Like any business, the more the MTA raises its prices, the less likely people are to use its services.

The latest NYC area transit headlines

Listen here:

• “No longer a national laughingstock”: LaGuardia has been named the best airport in the United States by Forbes Travel Guide. Read more.
• Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a bill on Wednesday that will let New York City install red-light cameras at up to 600 intersections, up from the current 150. Read more.
• State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli says the MTA’s finances are in far worse shape than the agency previously predicted, due in part to Hochul’s abrupt pause of congestion pricing. Read more.
• Mayor Eric Adams has unveiled a plan to double the width of the sidewalks and reduce the number of traffic lanes on Fifth Avenue between Bryant Park and Central Park — though it's unclear when, or if, the plan will become a reality. Read more.
• While subway ridership continues inching toward pre-pandemic levels, new MTA data shows there are still at least 1 million fewer daily turnstile entries than there were five years ago. Read more.
• Every new yellow taxi in New York City must be wheelchair accessible under rules finalized last week by the Taxi and Limousine Commission. Read more.

This story has been corrected to fix an editing error in the answer to the Curious Commuter question.

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On The Way

Catalina Gonella

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