Skip to main content

NYC congestion charge plan goes to public review

Most drivers likely to pay $15 daily charge for entering Manhattan's CBD
By Adam Hill December 14, 2023 Read time: 2 mins
Toll collection is expected to begin in late spring 2024 (© Rafael Ben Ari | Dreamstime.com)

New York City's congestion charging plan has passed another political hurdle with the green light for a public review of how tolling will work.

The Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority (TBTA) board, which is coterminous with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) board, voted to start the review of Central Business District Tolling.

The process of looking at New York’s congestion pricing programme will be similar to what already happens when MTA proposes fare and toll modifications. 

A 60-day period where people can comment via email, voicemail or post will be followed by "hybrid virtual and in-person public hearings that will be held on dates and times to be announced".

Following MTA's Traffic Mobility Review Board's recommendations, most drivers are likely to pay a $15 daily charge for entering Manhattan's central business district.

“People have been talking about congestion pricing for generations – going back to the late ’60s,” said MTA chair and CEO Janno Lieber. 

The plan is to keep the toll low, Lieber insists, "providing big night and weekend discounts and also discounts and exemptions for the folks who really need to drive". 

Hearings are expected to be held in early 2024, after which the MTA Board will review findings and schedule a vote to authorise adoption.

Toll collection is expected to begin in late spring 2024.

MTA says 60% of the toll system infrastructure is complete, and will continue to be built out while the review is underway.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Taking the long view of ITS
    March 24, 2015
    Caroline Visser believes the ITS industry must present a coherent case for consideration of the technology to become part of transport policy and planning. As ITS advisor and road finance director for the International Road Federation (IRF) in Geneva, Caroline Visser is well placed to evaluate quantifying the benefits of ITS implementation – a topic about which there is little agreement and even less consistency. She is pressing to get some consistency in the evaluation of ITS deployments through the use of
  • Advanced booking: what are transportation leaders reading?
    August 21, 2023
    There’s never been more information available to us via online platforms, rolling TV news and social media channels. In this environment, does the old-fashioned book still have something to offer? We asked a few transportation leaders what they were reading…
  • Xerox counts on machine vision for high occupancy enforcement
    October 29, 2014
    Machine vision techniques can provide solutions to some of the traffic planners most enduring problems With a high proportion of cars being occupied by the driver alone, one of the easiest, most environmentally friendly and cheapest methods of reducing congestion is to encourage more people to travel in each vehicle. So to persuade people to share rides, high occupancy lanes were devised to prioritise vehicles with (typically) three of more people on board and in some areas these vehicles are exempt from
  • T-Charge introduced to older vehicles in London to tackle toxic air pollution
    October 23, 2017
    To combat thousands of premature deaths caused by air pollution in London, up to 34, 000 polluting vehicles travelling into Central London every month may have to pay the T-Charge £10.00 ($13.00) which will operate on top of the Congestion Charge £11.50 ($15.00). Launched by the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, the T -Charge applies to drivers of pre-Euro 4 vehicles that do not meet the PM and NOx emissions and has come into effect from 7.00am on 23 October 2017.