DSCToronto
Superstar
This may fit here or in the Doug Ford thread ...
From this week's economist:
MAURA RYAN, a speech therapist in New York City, was dreading the introduction of congestion pricing. To see her patients in Queens and Manhattan she sometimes drives across the East River a couple of times a day. The idea of paying a $9 toll each day infuriated her. Yet since the policy was actually implemented, she has changed her mind. A journey which used to take an hour or more can now be as quick as 15 minutes. “Well, this is very nice,” she admits thinking. Ms Ryan is not alone. Polls show more New Yorkers now support the toll than oppose it. A few months ago, it saw staunch opposition.
Congestion pricing came into effect in Manhattan on January 5th, just two weeks before Donald Trump became president. So far it has been almost miraculous in its effects. Traffic is down by about 10%, leading to substantially faster journeys, especially at the pinch-points of bridges and tunnels. Car-noise complaints are down by 70%. Buses are travelling so much faster that their drivers are having to stop and wait to keep to their schedules. The congestion charge is raising around $50m each month to update the subway and other public-transport systems, and ridership is up sharply. Broadway attendance is rising, not falling, as some feared.
New Yorkers may be surprised by how well it is all working. They shouldn’t be. London’s congestion charge, introduced over 20 years ago, had similar effects there. What they should be astonished by is the fact that it took almost half a century to be implemented. The principle of congestion pricing was first outlined by an economist at New York’s Columbia University, William Vickrey, in the 1960s. A version, reintroducing bridge tolls, almost went into effect in the 1970s before Congress killed it.
The current scheme was muscled through the state legislature by Andrew Cuomo, then the governor, in 2019. It took six years to come into force. Last year, with the cameras ready to roll, it was delayed again by Kathy Hochul, Mr Cuomo’s successor. Only after Donald Trump won re-election did it start. New York is thus decades late to an idea it invented, another example of how hard it can be for cities to do the obvious.■
From this week's economist:
MAURA RYAN, a speech therapist in New York City, was dreading the introduction of congestion pricing. To see her patients in Queens and Manhattan she sometimes drives across the East River a couple of times a day. The idea of paying a $9 toll each day infuriated her. Yet since the policy was actually implemented, she has changed her mind. A journey which used to take an hour or more can now be as quick as 15 minutes. “Well, this is very nice,” she admits thinking. Ms Ryan is not alone. Polls show more New Yorkers now support the toll than oppose it. A few months ago, it saw staunch opposition.
Congestion pricing came into effect in Manhattan on January 5th, just two weeks before Donald Trump became president. So far it has been almost miraculous in its effects. Traffic is down by about 10%, leading to substantially faster journeys, especially at the pinch-points of bridges and tunnels. Car-noise complaints are down by 70%. Buses are travelling so much faster that their drivers are having to stop and wait to keep to their schedules. The congestion charge is raising around $50m each month to update the subway and other public-transport systems, and ridership is up sharply. Broadway attendance is rising, not falling, as some feared.
New Yorkers may be surprised by how well it is all working. They shouldn’t be. London’s congestion charge, introduced over 20 years ago, had similar effects there. What they should be astonished by is the fact that it took almost half a century to be implemented. The principle of congestion pricing was first outlined by an economist at New York’s Columbia University, William Vickrey, in the 1960s. A version, reintroducing bridge tolls, almost went into effect in the 1970s before Congress killed it.
The current scheme was muscled through the state legislature by Andrew Cuomo, then the governor, in 2019. It took six years to come into force. Last year, with the cameras ready to roll, it was delayed again by Kathy Hochul, Mr Cuomo’s successor. Only after Donald Trump won re-election did it start. New York is thus decades late to an idea it invented, another example of how hard it can be for cities to do the obvious.■
