Manhattan drivers face $9 charge in first such US effort to struggle gridlock

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – New York Metropolis drivers on Monday needed to pay $9 to enter Manhattan underneath the primary such congestion charge within the U.S., which seeks to boost billions for mass transit and scale back site visitors jams.

The charge went into impact on Sunday after New Jersey failed on Friday to persuade a decide to halt it pending an attraction.

The town rushed to implement the cost earlier than President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20. Trump, who has a Manhattan residence, opposes the charge and mentioned he would search to dam it.

New York is imposing the $9 cost on passenger automobiles within the daytime in Manhattan south of sixtieth Road. Vehicles and buses pays as much as $21.60. The charge is lowered by 75% at night time.

Charged by way of digital license plate readers, non-public automobiles pays as soon as a day no matter what number of journeys they make. Taxis pays 75 cents per journey and ride-share automobiles reserved by apps like Uber (NYSE:UBER) and Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT) pays $1.50 per journey.

Whereas New York is the primary U.S. metropolis to impose such a toll, London carried out one in 2003, and the charge is now 15 kilos ($19).

Sarah Kaufman, director of New York College’s Rudin Heart for Transportation, mentioned Monday that the expertise of different world cities exhibits that the cost initially may be very unpopular.

Then residents “started to understand the discount in site visitors and the elevated transit companies. So ideally, that is what is going to occur right here in New York,” she mentioned.

New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority mentioned this system will end in 80,000 fewer automobiles a day, about an 11% discount, in what it referred to as probably the most congested district in the US.

Greater than 700,000 automobiles enter the Manhattan central enterprise district day by day, slowing site visitors to round 7 mph (11 kph) on common. That’s 23% slower than in 2010.

The town estimates the congestion cost will usher in $500 million in its first yr. New York Governor Kathy Hochul mentioned the cash would underpin $15 billion in debt financing for funding in subways, buses and different mass transit enhancements.