Summit Grantees Win as New York City’s Congestion Pricing Program Clears Final Hurdles

With the final federal hurdles cleared, New York is poised to launch the United States’s first congestion pricing program in early 2024. Long the dream of transportation advocates—and commuters mired in the worst congestion in the U.S.—congestion pricing was first passed into law in 2019 after a decade-long advocacy push from Summit grantees Tri-State Transportation Campaign, Regional Plan Association (RPA), and other advocacy organizations.

Congestion pricing, when fully implemented, is expected to raise $1 billion annually through tolls charged on vehicles entering Manhattan below 60^th Street. That new revenue will fund improvements to public transit throughout the New York metropolitan region, ideally creating a positive feedback loop that reduces car traffic, pollution, and greenhouse gases as drivers elect to take transit rather than drive.

Tri-State Transportation Campaign’s Executive Director Renae Reynolds emphasized the environmental benefits of congestion pricing in the New York Times’s reporting on the final federal approval: “It’s extremely important that we focus on meeting our climate goals and improving our air quality. . . . Congestion pricing is going to help us do that by clearing up clogged roads, by investing in mass transit.”

Tri-State and RPA have advocated for congestion pricing since it was first proposed in 2007. Since its initial proposal in 2007, Tri-State and RPA have been strong advocates for congestion pricing. Its victory is long in coming, and both organizations played pivotal roles analyzing traffic and commuting patterns to understand the economic impacts of congestion pricing, educating stakeholders on the benefits of the policy, and organizing transit riders.

Summit is proud to support the ongoing work of Tri-State and RPA as they advocate for robust implementation of congestion pricing and the improved transit service that riders need as the city’s workforce continues to return to offices in the central business district of Manhattan as part of the city’s post-COVID recovery.

Resources:

NYTimes article