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

  • The case for using toll revenues to fund Interstate improvements
    May 11, 2012
    High road toll increases threaten new regulation, but states should be free to use toll revenue for Interstate improvements. Bob Poole reports Large toll rate increases have been implemented recently by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, justified in part to help pay for its World Trade Center project. In response, a bill was introduced in Congress that would allow the Secretary of Transportation to regulate tolls on every bridge on the country’s Interstates and other federally aided highways. F
  • Texas goes public on habitual toll violators
    March 24, 2015
    Andrew Bardin Williams considers the effect of the ‘Name and Shame’ strategy adopted in Texas to encourage serial toll violators to pay up. It’s a tough time to be a scofflaw in the Lone Star State. Habitual toll violators - some with tens of thousands of unpaid tolls and fees - are being publically shamed into squaring their accounts with US toll agencies. In November 2013 the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) starting publishing a list of the state’s most egregious toll violators on its website.
  • Buttigieg 'to put $150bn' into public transit
    January 20, 2021
    Cash part of proposed $1 trillion infrastructure package from new US administration
  • Stocchi takes on transatlantic tolling tasks
    March 20, 2017
    We talk to Emanuela Stocchi, the first overseas-based female president of IBTTA and well placed to view tolling on both sides of the Atlantic. As incoming president of the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association (IBTTA), Emanuela Stocchi aims to bolster the ‘international, mobility and connections’ elements of the US-based tolling organisation.