How Congestion Pricing Will Improve Your Life
How Congestion Pricing Will Improve Your Life
Plus: 15 Quick and Easy Policy Ideas to Demand Right Now
Congestion pricing will do the impossible: It will make New York City bigger overnight. With hundreds of thousands fewer cars and trucks driving through our neighborhoods every day, we will all have more room to breathe. And with more room, there’s so many ways our lives could improve: Your bus will run faster. Your bike commute will be safer. Your air will be cleaner. Your street will be quieter. You will even have more money in your pocket. And if you’re a New Yorker who relies on driving, believe it or not, you will spend less time stuck in traffic than ever before.
It will be a first-in-the-nation effort to use tolling as a tool for the public good, including the improvement of public transit, the shifting of trips out of cars, and the reduction in congestion, pollution, and traffic crashes.
London and Stockholm launched similar programs in 2003 and 2007, respectively – and successfully reduced traffic crashes, lowered pollution levels, improved bus speeds, and shifted countless trips out of cars. Fatal traffic crashes fell 27% in London’s congestion pricing zone. The number of asthma-related urgent care visits and hospitalizations for children fell by half in Stockholm. In London, bus wait times fell by 30%. Emissions in both cities fell by as much as 24%.
Recommendations
Similar results are possible for New York City, if, following the model of London and Stockholm, we encourage New Yorkers to shift trips out of cars with new infrastructure, more efficient and accessible transportation, and financial incentives for making sustainable choices.
Transportation Alternatives makes the following recommendations to ensure that congestion pricing will bring faster buses, improved street-level accessibility for all New Yorkers, better biking, and incentives for choosing the most sustainable transportation modes.
Faster Buses
New York City’s buses are the slowest in the nation. Congestion pricing can turn those buses into the most efficient way to get around the Big Apple. With less car traffic, there will be fewer drivers blocking bus lanes and more space on the street to dedicate to new, exclusive lanes.
Big Picture Recommendation for Buses
The New York City Department of Transportation (NYC DOT) should immediately start planning New York City’s first bus rapid transit routes into the space that will be freed up by congestion pricing. DOT should expedite routes in the communities with the longest and slowest bus commutes as part of an integrated citywide network of efficient surface transportation, and expand capacity by doubling the width of the most trafficked existing bus routes. The MTA should develop a plan that best leverages the benefits of Congestion Pricing and shifts the most trips from cars to buses.
Fast, Cheap, and Easy Policy Changes for Buses
DOT should convert all bus lanes to 24/7 operation with transit signal priority and red painted lanes protected by physical barriers or camera enforcement. London’s red painted and camera-enforced bus lanes make up only 5% of the city’s road space but carry 35% of its traffic.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey should convert a second lane of the Lincoln Tunnel into a bus-only lane, and make both operable 24/7, so two-way express travel for bus commuters is available at all hours. While a typical traffic lane carries about 3,000 people in 2,000 cars each hour, the express bus lane can carry over 30,000 people in 700 buses during that same time period.
The MTA should expand all-door boarding to all bus routes (as promised) to improve bus speeds and increase the number of buses into the toll zone to respond to increased need. All-door boarding has been shown to significantly improve bus speeds where it has been tested in New York City and generally increases ridership and reduces congestion wherever it’s implemented.
Improved Accessibility for All New Yorkers
For people with disabilities, seniors, and children, New York City is rendered largely inaccessible by treacherous streets and a subway system that fails to meet the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and other disability standards at every turn. While congestion pricing will fund extensive accessibility improvements, including the installation of subway access elevators system-wide, in the time it takes to complete these large-scale capital projects, congestion pricing could also grant wide open access to surface transportation. Funding an expanded Access-A-Ride (AAR) paratransit service and making space on the road for safe crossings and accessible busing could transform mobility for New Yorkers with disabilities, seniors, and families with small children.
Big Picture Recommendation for Accessibility
DOT should immediately start planning a citywide accessibility network of Safe Routes to Schools and Safe Routes for Seniors, with universal raised crosswalks, daylighting, level bus boarding, and curb extensions into the space that will be freed up by congestion pricing, prioritizing neighborhoods with the largest populations of seniors, families, and people with disabilities. As the long-term capital project of bringing our century-old subway system into ADA and other disability standard compliance continues, our streets provide the fastest, cheapest, and easiest route to accessible transportation for all.
Fast, Cheap, and Easy Policy Changes for Accessibility
Governor Hochul should expand the MTA’s on-demand e-Hail program – without rationing rides or raising the prices – to give the nearly 170,000 registered AAR users more travel flexibility and better service. Today, traditional AAR paratransit rides must be scheduled 24 hours in advance — an unreliable and antiquated system — forcing many to rely on expensive private transportation.
DOT should expand the successful pedestrian-crossing prioritization program to every signalized intersection in New York City, starting with Vision Zero priority corridors and intersections. In New York City, the number of deaths and serious injuries caused by turning cars decreased by 56% at intersections with leading pedestrian intervals.
DOT should launch a citywide retiming of all arterials by expanding the existing 25 mph signal re-timing program, and following through on expanding the "green wave" signal re-timing on major bike thoroughfares, and making other signal re-adjustments based on expected drops in vehicle traffic volume.
Better Biking
Today, more New Yorkers are riding bikes than ever before. But while bicycling is booming, protected bike lane construction has fallen well below legal mandates and existing lanes are severely overcrowded. Congestion pricing could help the City of New York satisfy the cycling fervor, reduce pollution and crashes by replacing countless delivery trucks with e-cargo bikes, and take advantage of New York City’s potential — with its high density neighborhoods and relatively flat streets — to be the most bicycling friendly city in America. With less car traffic, there will be more space to make cycling a safe option for personal transportation and last-mile shipping solutions.
Big Picture Recommendation for Biking
DOT should immediately plan a citywide network of wider protected bike lanes into the space that will be freed up by congestion pricing, with the goal of every New Yorker living within one-quarter mile of a protected bike lane, and setting up the infrastructure to support New York City’s first cargo bike delivery hubs, prioritizing the neighborhoods most plagued by truck traffic.
Fast, Cheap, and Easy Policy Changes for Biking
DOT should paint all conventional, buffered, and protected bike lanes green, follow through on expanding the expanding the "greenwave" pilot to time lights to average bike speed on bike corridors, and add some form of barrier protection to all conventional and buffered bike lanes. Researchers found that protected bike lanes led to a drastic decline in fatalities for all users of the road. Green bike lanes reduce conflicts, increase visibility, and improve safety.
DOT should follow through on its PLANYC commitment and immediately release a request for proposals to launch the United States’ first citywide secure bike parking program. One in four New York City households has experienced bike theft, and for delivery workers this number is 49%. Secure bicycle parking is especially critical for low-income people and people of color in New York.
The New York State legislature should pass legislation to legalize electric-assist cargo bikes so that companies can legally deliver by e-bike, and dedicate funding to the creation of electric-assist cargo bike delivery hubs where goods can be transferred from ship or truck to bike. The top three ZIP codes for daily freight deliveries are located in Midtown Manhattan, the most traffic-clogged area of the city.
The MTA should use a travel lane to add a protected on-street bike lane to all MTA bridges, including the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, and rescind rules requiring cyclists to dismount on bridges with pedestrian paths, including the Marine Parkway-Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge and the Triborough Bridge. After a dedicated bike access lane was opened on the Brooklyn Bridge, ridership doubled without any decline in ridership on other adjacent bridges.
The New York City Council should pass legislation to publicly fund Citi Bike to expand citywide so that every New Yorker has access to this essential transportation system, including accessible Citi Bike options for people with disabilities. Public bike share offers a massive expansion of transportation access in a tiny footprint. New York is the only city in the U.S. that does not offer public funding to its bike share program. In 2022, despite being accessible to less than half of New York City, Citi Bike hosted 30.5 million rides. The system has already seen a 33 percent increase in ridership in 2023.
The New York City Council should pass Intro 417, ending the community board stranglehold on bike lane construction and fast tracking existing protected bike lane projects. Researchers have found that protected bike lanes lead to a drastic decline in fatalities for all users of the road. Women especially are more likely to choose biking if protected bike lanes are accessible. A two-way protected bike lane can move 7,500 people an hour, compared to as few as 600 per hour in cars.
Financial Incentives for Sustainable Choices
New York City’s traffic clogged streets don’t work for anyone and cost us all — in high taxes, lawsuits, lost time, crash risk, and negative health outcomes, particularly in the environmental justice communities with disproportionate amounts of the city’s truck and highway traffic. Congestion makes New York City inaccessible to people on foot, dangerous to people riding bikes, interminable for people riding the bus, and inefficient for people driving cars and trucks. Congestion pricing could provide an economic opportunity to encourage transportation choices that are good for New York City. With a toll for car traffic, we can provide incentives to people who choose less dangerous, polluting, and congesting modes.
Big Picture Recommendation for Incentivization
Mayor Adams and the New York City Council should immediately start planning a wide array of financial incentives to reward New Yorkers for choosing the most safe and sustainable transportation modes, launching a virtuous cycle that encourages long term mode shift.
Fast, Cheap, and Easy Policy Changes for Incentivization
The New York City Council should create a “Green Commuter Cash-Out Program” by passing legislation permitting New Yorkers who bike, walk, or take public transit to work to “cashout” the funding that their employers provide for parking as a reward for choosing green transportation. A study of one Transportation Benefits Equity “cash-out” program found that, as a result, solo driving to work fell 17%, carpooling increased 64%, transit ridership increased 50%, and walking or biking increased 39%.
The New York State legislature should pass legislation creating a rebate program for the purchase of a bike, scooter, e-bike, or e-scooter which prioritizes low-income residents in transit deserts and which is funded by eliminating the $19 million Manhattan resident parking tax abatement. This would decrease congestion in the most congested part of the state and support mobility equity by eliminating a tax abatement for the richest New Yorkers and funding sustainable transportation for the least wealthy. A similar program in Sweden doubled the number of e-bikes within a year. In New York City, just over half of all car trips are three miles or less, according to a 2019 study. Many of these short car trips could be replaced with an e-bike ride.
Mayor Eric Adams should call on the MTA to lead a task force including NYC Ferry, Port Authority, and Citi Bike to create a plan for multimodal fare integration, while increasing Metro-North and LIRR service to make them more useful for trips within New York City. Fare integration has been shown to increase transit ridership and shift trips out of cars. This strategy should be particularly focused on creating free and heavily discounted transit options for communities poorly served by transit, and communities most burdened with truck and highway traffic.
