Feds give MTA green light to move forward with congestion pricing
NEW YORK -- New York moves a step closer to congestion pricing as one roadblock is cleared.
The state got the green light from the Federal Highway Administration to head to the next phase of the approval process, but its implementation is still about a year away.
The long-debated plan calls for drivers to pay a fee to enter Manhattan below 60th Street. It's supposed to reduce congestion and, at the same time, pay for upgrading buses, subways and commuter rail lines.
MTA Chief of External Relations John J. McCarthy released the following statement:
"Congestion pricing is a generational opportunity to make it easier for people to get around in, and get to, the Central Business District, by reducing traffic and funding improvements to the public transit system. To do it right, environmental equity has been an integral component. We are grateful that the FHWA has acknowledged the Project Sponsors' efforts to date and has found the document has met the standards for legal sufficiency."
Opponents of congestion pricing have been calling for an audit of the MTA and an environmental impact assessment to be required before the plan moves forward.
Some fear there will be an influx of people parking in upper Manhattan neighborhoods after crossing the George Washington Bridge.
"The congestion tax scheme is nothing but a cash grab for the MTA to deal with their complete decades of mismanagement and mess at the MTA, and instead of dealing with their own problems, they're looking at New Jersey to fill their own-- to pickpocket the commuters, hard-working commuters of Jersey," New Jersey Rep. Josh Gottheimer said.
MTA Chair Janno Lieber said, "New York is the number one most congested place in the United States. Ambulances can't get to hospitals, fire trucks can't get to fires. We have to do something."