New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has proposed an $8-per-day congestion fee for drivers who enter parts of Manhattan. He’s billing the fee, patterned after a similar levy in London, as a tool to ease the strain on infrastructure, combat ground-level pollution and curtail greenhouse gases implicated in global climate change. The New York Times has the story here.
Revenues from the congestion fees would generate about $400 million in its first year, which would be funneled into improvements to the transit system. Bloomberg pledged not to impose the fee, however, until the city upgraded mass transit service into the city.
The flat fee would apply between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. weekdays. According to the NYT, “there would be no toll booths, just a network of cameras that would capture license plate numbers and either charge a driver’s existing commuter account or generate a bill to be paid each time.” Truckers, who faced fees of $21 per day, were predictably unhappy with the proposal. So, too, were advocates of the poor and the middle class.
Nobody likes paying money where they didn’t have to before. On the other hand, access to Manhattan is a finite commodity. Price is the most efficient rationing mechanism yet invented. If people don’t like paying the fee, which would amount to $40 per week or $2,000 per year, they could take buses, share rides or arrange for telecommuting.
To sell the idea politically, Bloomberg has to ensure commuters that the congestion fee isn’t just another scheme for raising slush funds for politicians. The congestion fee must be plowed back into the transportation system or it will be perceived as just another scam. The proposal is sure to be controversial. But at least New Yorkers are discussing the idea of congestion pricing. That’s more than you can say for Virginia.
(Hat tip to Lyle Solla-Yates for pointing out the story.)