Are you driving in Manhattan? It will cost you dearly; a new congestion toll begins on Sunday

NEW YORK –

New York’s new toll for drivers entering midtown Manhattan opened Sunday, meaning many people will pay $9 to access the busiest part of the Big Apple during rush hour.

The toll, known as congestion pricing, aims to ease traffic jams in the densely populated city while raising money to help repair its ailing public transportation infrastructure.

Drivers of most private cars will pay $9 to enter Manhattan south of Central Park on weekdays between 5 a.m. and 9 p.m. and on weekends between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. After hours, the toll will be $2.25 for most vehicles.

After years of study, delays and a last-ditch attempt by New Jersey to end the toll, the program launched without major problems early Sunday. But transit officials cautioned that the project, the first in the nation, may need adjustments — and likely won’t be tested for the first time until the workweek.

“This is a tolling system that has never been tried before in terms of complexity,” Janno Lieber, president and CEO of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, said at a news conference Sunday at the Grand Central Terminal. “We don’t expect New Yorkers to change their behavior overnight. Everyone is going to have to adapt to this.

The fees — which vary for motorcycle riders, truck drivers and ride-hailing apps — will be collected by electronic toll systems at more than 100 detection sites now spread across the lower half of Manhattan.

It is in addition to the tolls that drivers pay to cross various bridges and tunnels to get into the city, although there will be a credit of up to $3 for those who have already paid to enter Manhattan via certain tunnels at the peak hours.

Sunday morning, a few hours after the toll came into operation, traffic moved quickly along the northern edge of the congestion zone at 60th Street and 2nd Avenue. Many motorists seemed unaware that the newly activated cameras, placed along the arm of a steel gantry above the street, would soon send a new charge to their EZ Passes.

“Are you kidding me?” said Chris Smith, a real estate agent from Somerville, New Jersey, as he drove against traffic under the cameras, skirting the charge. “Whose idea was this?” Kathy Hochul? She should be arrested for ignorance.

Some residents and transit riders, meanwhile, said they hope the program will ease bottlenecks and frequent honking in their neighborhoods, while helping to modernize the subway system.

“I think the idea would be good to try to minimize the amount of traffic and encourage people to use public transportation,” said Phil Bauer, a surgeon who lives in midtown Manhattan, describing the din constant traffic in his neighborhood as “pretty brutal.”

President-elect Donald Trump, a Republican, has pledged to end the program upon taking office, but it is unclear whether he will follow through. The plan had stalled during his first term pending a federal environmental review.

In November, Trump, whose namesake Trump Tower is in the toll zone, said congestion pricing would “put New York City at a disadvantage to competing cities and states, and businesses would flee.” .

Lieber, the MTA director, said he was not overly concerned that the president-elect would unwind the program, even if he followed through on it. “I think he understands, living on 59th and Fifth Avenue, the impact traffic has on our city,” Lieber said Sunday.

Other major cities around the world, including London and Stockholm, have implemented similar congestion pricing systems, but this is the first in the United States. Supporters of the idea note that the programs were largely unpopular when first implemented, gaining approval when the public felt benefits such as faster buses. speeds and less traffic.

In New York, even some transit riders have expressed skepticism about a plan to raise much-needed funds for the subway system.

“With my experience of the MTA and the way they have allocated their funds in the past, they have done a pretty poor job with this,” said Christakis Charalambides, a supervisor in the fashion industry, as he waited a subway Sunday morning. in Lower Manhattan. “I don’t know if I necessarily believe it until I actually see something.”

The toll was supposed to go into effect last year at $15, but Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul abruptly suspended the program ahead of the 2024 elections, when congressional elections in the city’s suburban areas — the epicenter of opposition to the program – were considered. to be vital in his party’s efforts to regain control of Congress.

Shortly after the election, Hochul relaunched the plan at the lower rate of $9. She denies politics are at play and said she thought the initial $15 fee was too high, even though she had been a strong supporter of the program before stopping it.

Congestion pricing has also survived several lawsuits seeking to block the program, including a last-ditch effort by the state of New Jersey to get a judge to temporarily block it. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, has pledged to continue fighting the plan.

In response, Lieber called the New Jersey governor’s views “the definition of hypocrisy,” adding that he expected the state to adjust its strategy after “losing again and again” in court.