On its third day, New York Metropolis’s congestion pricing system isn’t going in addition to hoped, but it surely’s nonetheless a good suggestion and it may be improved.
Congestion pricing is meant to do two issues: elevate cash and scale back congestion. I don’t understand how a lot cash it’s elevating, however the numbers recommend that it has but to meaningfully scale back congestion contained in the reduction zone.
Autos are transferring quicker over the bridges and thru the tunnels, however they’re going as slowly as ever on metropolis streets, in response to real-time visitors information. On Tuesday at 9 a.m., for instance, it took solely about 11 minutes to get by means of the Holland Tunnel between New Jersey and Decrease Manhattan. That’s round 50 % quicker than it took at that hour on Tuesdays earlier than the congestion pricing.
However transferring round contained in the zone stays sluggish. To get from Hell’s Kitchen on the West Facet of Manhattan to Midtown East took the identical period of time on Tuesday at 9 a.m. as on previous Mondays at that hour.
That was no fluke: The sample was the identical on these routes and others on Sunday and Monday.
You may see these numbers and plenty of others for your self on the Congestion Pricing Tracker, which relies on Google Maps real-time visitors information. Big credit score to the creators of the web site, Benjamin Moshes, a senior at Brown, and his brother Joshua Moshes, a freshman at Northeastern.
INRIX, a transportation analytics firm, equally reported that the typical journey velocity within the congestion reduction zone was 12 miles per hour at 8 a.m. on Tuesday, barely slower than the 12.1 m.p.h. on the identical time on the corresponding Tuesday in early 2024.
It’s early but, however the problem that the congestion pricing system is having in dashing up visitors contained in the zone shouldn’t shock anybody: Its essential impression is on private autos, which accounted for under 35 % of the autos contained in the zone earlier than congestion pricing started, in response to the Visitors Mobility Assessment Board.
For-hire autos (equivalent to Ubers) and taxis accounted for 52 % of autos within the zone, and they’re extra calmly charged per unit of congestion that they trigger. The identical is true of vehicles and business vans, which pay as soon as after which can drive round all day contained in the zone.
The answer is to boost congestion charges for these kinds of autos, as Michael Ostrovsky of Stanford and Frank Yang of the College of Chicago wrote in a analysis paper final yr. Town is already giving incentives to supply vehicles to make extra of their deliveries at evening.
