It’ll cost $9 each time. They’re raising money for the mass transit system by charging specifically those people who don’t use the mass transit system and that feels really unfair to me.
You’re costing society by driving your private vehicle at all let alone in downtown manhattan. The least you could do for all of the lung cancer, asthma, and road fatalities you’re contributing to is pay some money.
I’m glad you mentioned that. It primarily targets congestion, but one of the real costs of congestion is pollution. They complain it’s not fair. Is it fair that people walking don’t get clean air because of constant congestion? Is it fair that they want to eat outside or take a walk and have to smell exhaust? It’s also a tax on you polluting
More mass transit = fewer people in cars = better driving experience for people in cars (you).
I won’t blame you for preferring to drive a car; the US is practically built for cars, and even what little public transit you have access to is of poor quality compared to what you can find in the likes of Germany and Hong Kong. And people love to complain about Germany’s Deutsche Bahn.
NYC is trying to solve the issue of traffic congestion. You’re stuck in that rush hour traffic? Sorry, but you are the traffic. Deterring drivers from driving into the city is the whole point. It is supposed to suck for you, but it will make the locals happier since they’d have less noise pollution, air pollution, more walkable areas, and faster emergency response times.
To be fair, Deutsche Bahn is an actual pile of shit, thats why people love complaining. Last time my train ran less than 5min late mustve been around 2005.
Protip: You could avoid the $9 toll by using the mass transit.
I once knew someone who commuted into NYC each day by rail – drove to the train station, and went from there. Can move out of NYC and commute in, I suppose. Housing will probably be cheaper. Was a long commute.
that feels really unfair to me.
Well, I mean, the real limited resource that they’re charging for is gonna be the available road space, as they’re going to be trying to reduce traffic load, I expect, as the road network is just overloaded. I don’t know if there’d be a realistic alternative to provide much more road space in Manhattan with the funds. Like, where would you put it? They’d have to bulldoze tall buildings or something.
People without sense want to get rid of central park, and turn all the subway lines into underground roadways.
At that point you might as well build another set of roads above the current street level.
Repeat as needed.
You live in literally the best transit area in the entire nation. One of the best in the world.
Take Transit. You are lucky enough to be in one of the areas where you aren’t forced to drive. You are incredibly privileged to live there, and are able to take transit to pretty much wherever you like.
Plus it’s lower Manhattan. You said you live inside the congestion zone, which means lets be real, this is a drop in the bucket compared to actually driving there. Just your car you probably pay for storage, some of the highest gas in the country, and the highest insurance in the country, and you’re still complaining that there’s a slight tax now because you are choosing not to take the incredibly convenient, regular, and world renown subway system?
Even in NYC (where driving is particularly slow and mass transit is particularly well developed) it’s still usually significantly faster to drive than it is to take mass transit unless you’re traveling within Manhattan or between two stops of the same express train. The trips I frequently take are about twice as fast by car as by mass transit, so from my point of view I am forced to take mass transit (when I have nowhere to park at my destination) while people outside the city have the luxury of quickly driving directly from where they are to where they want to be.
I’m not going to get into my opinion of how pleasant (or not) taking mass transit is compared to driving, because that’s subjective. However, I will note that according to the MTA’s own survey, a little over half of the people who do take mass transit are dissatisfied by it.
Mass transit is necessary here because the city has an old layout not designed for cars and so it wouldn’t be able to function if everyone had to drive. That doesn’t imply that mass transit is pleasant or convenient. It’s just often the only option.
Move to Houston then where the city was designed for the car and you can drive in traffic every day and park in massive parking structures whenever you like. It’s a very odd opinion that you choose to live in the only city that focuses on people and mass transit in this country, and complain that one of the best things about it is the one thing that is unique. Go live in Texas if you like driving. Go live in LA and drive on the 5 where cars were at the center of their city planning. Sounds like your dream. You can have 20 lanes of constant traffic, 30 story tall parking garages, just like you dream of.
You see the problem with those cities is that everyone drives. It’s not a privilege to drive in those cities, it’s not reserved for those who can afford it, so everyone is forced to drive, and then all of a sudden cars are everywhere. You want your cake and eat it too. Maybe that’s why you’re upset about the tax, because that bar has been raised even higher now, and you may be under it. I guarantee the actual rich will be paying it easily.
I live in NYC to support (and have the support of) my relatives, not because I want to. I also never said that I was rich. Even without the toll, driving in Manhattan is at the edge of what I can reasonably spend. Just the parking costs several times more than all my other discretionary spending put together.
I grew up in a Texas suburb and it was pretty nice (except for the humidity) but I don’t have first-hand experience with driving in a place like Houston or LA. I know that there’s a lot of traffic, but I’m genuinely curious about whether it’s really slower than mass transit in NYC is.
Mass transit is necessary here because the city has an old layout not designed for cars and so it wouldn’t be able to function if everyone had to drive.
Cities shouldn’t be designed for cars. They should be designed for people. I get it. They’ve added a tax and that’s inconvenient. I agree.
I live in a European city with a medieval layout. I’m happy they started banning cars. Our city is more liveable without than with cars.
If you think your city is old and not designed for cars, come visit Boston. You can take the train.
I used to live in the Boston area, but out by I95. That’s actually where I learned how to drive. The Boston subway is a lot less gross than the New York subway, but I still only went to Boston about once a year. There wasn’t anything in Boston that was worth getting on the subway for me. However, Cambridge and Somerville weren’t too bad to drive to, as long as I had a plan for where to park.
I’m not saying Boston is a bad place. I just don’t like most of the things that people go into a city to do. The funny thing is that I live in Manhattan because I work around here, driving to work is entirely unrealistic, and I’d rather walk than take the subway.
It’s because people have more rights to clean air and lower cancer rates then you do to driving a car. Paris did the congestion pricing and it literally made the city a cleaner and healthy place to live. That is what you should want for Manhattan and if you don’t there are plenty of other cities that will still prioritize cars. NYC needs to be a post-car city.
