New Jersey is suing to stop New York City’s landmark congestion price plan to charge drivers entering downtown Manhattan.
New Jersey filed a lawsuit in federal court Friday against the US Department of Transportation, which gave final approval for New York City’s plan.
New York City’s plan could toll drivers entering Manhattan below 60th street up to $23 and is set to begin as soon as spring 2024. It’s designed to reduce carbon emissions from cars and pollution, improve public transit, and make the nation’s largest city more livable. It would be the first congestion price program in the United States.
But in its lawsuit, New Jersey said that federal approval was “misguided” and violates the National Environmental Policy Act, a 1970 law created to improve the environment by requiring federal agencies to conduct comprehensive reviews over large-scale proposals that could impact the environment.
The lawsuit said New York City’s plan would divert extra traffic to New Jersey, harming the state’s environment, and raise costs for the 400,000 New Jersey residents who commute into Manhattan every day.
“New Jersey will bear much of the burden of this congestion pricing scheme—in terms of environmental, financial, and human impacts—but receive none of its benefits,” the lawsuit said.
The suit asks the court to put congestion pricing on hold until studies assessing its impact on traffic and air quality are completed, a process that can take years.
The Department of Transportation declined to comment on the lawsuit.
Downtown Manhattan has some of the worst gridlock in the United States. New York City’s congestion price plan, which would toll drivers electronically, aims to reduce the number of vehicles entering the congestion zone by at least 10% every day. Cars travel at just 7.1 mph on average in the congestion price zone, and it’s a downward trend.
Funds from the congestion program would go to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) and bolster public transit, the dominant form of transportation in New York City.
The plan aims to generate a critical source of revenue to fund $15 billion in capital improvement projects to modernize the city’s 100-year-old public transit system.
“Congestion pricing will reduce traffic in our crowded downtown, improve air quality and provide critical resources to the MTA,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said last month.
While no other US city has implemented congestion pricing, Stockholm, London and Singapore have had it for years. These cities have reported benefits like decreased carbon dioxide pollution, higher average car speeds, and congestion reduction.
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