MTA board approves congestion pricing tolls, initiating 60-day review

The MTA board voted on Wednesday to approve a slate of congestion pricing tolls for vehicles that enter Manhattan below 60th Street, putting the agency on track to begin collecting the fees late next spring.

An MTA advisory panel called the Traffic Mobility Review Board recommended the toll structure last week, and the MTA board voted nine to one in favor of those recommendations. Only one member, David Mack, who represents Nassau County, voted against the measure. The tolls impose a $15 fee on passenger vehicles that enter the zone from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays and from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekends. The vote paves the way for a 60-day public comment period that will be followed by a final vote by the MTA board initiating the program.

"This is essential to the city’s future,” MTA Chair Janno Lieber said following the vote. “I said to the MTA team when I started here, we’re going to to do the hard stuff."

The vote represented a breakthrough for congestion pricing, which New York officials have proposed in one form or another for more than 50 years. Former Mayor John Lindsay in 1970 proposed adding tolls to the East River bridges. And a push by former Mayor Michael Bloomberg to add an $8 congestion toll in Manhattan was sunk in 2008 when then-Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver killed the proposal in Albany.

The stakes are high for the program. Congestion pricing has been successfully implemented in other countries. But the MTA’s program represents the first effort in the United States to impose a fee to reduce gridlock.

The tolling scheme includes few exemptions. The MTA says additional exemptions would raise the cost of the base fare. The program is required by law to generate $1 billion a year.

Drivers who make $50,000 or less a year won’t have to pay for their first 10 trips into the zone each calendar month. Emergency vehicles, vehicles transporting people with disabilities and drivers who live in the congestion zone and make $60,000 or less per year are exempt. Drivers who remain on the West Side Highway or the FDR Drive will also avoid the charge.

The board signed off on a $5 credit for passenger vehicle drivers who already pay tolls to use the Lincoln, Holland, Queens-Midtown and Brooklyn-Battery tunnels.

Small trucks, buses and vans face a $24 charge during those hours, while large trucks, including big rigs, will have to pay $36. Motorcycles will be tolled a $7.50 daytime fee.

Passenger vehicles and motorcycles will only have to pay once per day, according to MTA board documents.

Taxi rides that cross the zone will be hit with a $1.25 surcharge, while app-based for-hire vehicle trips will be surcharged $2.50. Both fees are expected to be passed along to riders.

The MTA board also approved a 75% discount for drivers who enter the zone during overnight hours. Drivers who don’t use E-ZPass will pay 50% more than those who use the technology.

The board voted to allow the MTA to increase the tolls by 25% during annual “gridlock alert days," which come during the U.N. General Assembly and holiday season, when the city Department of Transportation warns people against driving in Manhattan.

Despite a near unanimous vote, several board members voiced concerns over the pricing structure during Wednesday's meeting, including those nominated by Mayor Eric Adams, who over the last week has called for toll exemptions for school buses, yellow taxis and vehicles taking people to medical appointments.

Midori Valdivia, a board member nominated by Adams, argued ahead of the vote that yellow taxi drivers have suffered over the last decade, and said they provide an essential service for the city.

“There is a case to be made for a deeply narrow exemption for taxis, I think the board should consider it,” Valdivia said.

Jamie Torres-Springer, the MTA's president of construction and development, said that years of delays to congestion pricing — which state lawmakers first approved in 2019 — have already required the agency to push back some major upgrades to the city's transit network, like adding more modern signal systems on the subway's A and C lines. The tolls are required by law to back $15 billion worth of loans, which accounts for nearly a third of the MTA's 2020-2024 construction program.

“We’re working on strategy that could mitigate delays to other projects,” Torres-Springer told the MTA board. He warned that two federal lawsuits filed by lawmakers in New Jersey could further delay the launch of congestion pricing.

Mack, the only board member who voted against the tolls, justified his decision by saying he "wouldn't want to hurt Lower Manhattan."

"I'm just looking out for my fellow Americans," Mack added.

John Banks, a Traffic Mobility Review Board member who helped come up with the toll price recommendations, said he wasn't surprised by the concerns raised during Wednesday's meeting.

"If everyone is mad at you, you've done your job," Banks said.