Regression to the Mean

Community Board 1 (CB1) has unanimously passed a resolution voicing its opposition to the plan, hatched by Governor Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio, to levy a toll on vehicles driving in Lower Manhattan. In a departure from precedent observed elsewhere, this scheme contains no exemption or discount for people who reside within the toll zone.

At CB1’s March 26 meeting, chairman Anthony Notaro said, “we all know that Lower Manhattan has over a million cars coming into it. Congestion is a hardship, in terms of quality of life, air quality. And this is a problem that hasn’t been addressed. Successive administrations also have failed to keep our public transit system as it should be. These are very important issues, and a problem to solve.”

“But we are not convinced that congestion pricing solves that, nor are we convinced that the money will be used as promised,” he continued, in a reference to the pledge that a congestion pricing levy on Lower Manhattan will be used to fund New York’s deteriorating subway system. “You probably remember the old story about the lottery being used to fund education. So much for that.”

	Anthony Notaro

“People who live here have many questions,” Mr. Notaro added, “like, ‘what does this mean to me, to my family, when we have to visit relatives or have to travel for medical procedures.’ We could debate that for months. But we’re not going to do that tonight. Instead, this resolution simply says ‘No!'” This elicited a round of applause and cheers from the assembled crowd.

“I’m of the opinion that you don’t negotiate with somebody if that’s just giving them power,” Mr. Notaro observed. “The first step is to simply say that this plan has been opaque. There has been no public review. Even now, they’re talking about doing it, but there’s no detail such as where, when, how much, who is exempt. Every other city has figured stuff like this out. We deserve to have a world-class plan. And what’s being proposed now is being done by the trick of putting it into a State budget with no public review.”

After Mr. Notaro’s remarks, the Boards voted unanimously to endorse a resolution demanding, “that the current initiative to implement any version of congestion pricing be halted and not incorporated into any budget or legislative action without further review.” The same measure called for, “the City to have greater control over the congestion pricing program and transportation,” and noted that, “virtually no details of this plan have been released nor has there been any public review or comment.”

The same measure argued that both congestion and transit funding, “must be addressed, but the solutions must be equitable so that any burdens and benefits are shared by all,” and that, “this plan will become simply another tax and not truly address our civic needs with [a] burden on those who live in the affected area.”

The resolution also warned that, “CB1 will not support any plan that does not address the needs of our City and places undue burden and cost on our neighbors who, by virtue of where they live, would be disproportionately penalized, or who may continue to suffer from poor public transit options without proper oversight and accountability,” while cautioning that, “this could become a regressive tax on those least able to pay and yet who rely on vehicular transportation for many vital needs, and may not alleviate the massive increase in vehicular traffic.”

The resolution enacted by CB1 last week followed another measure, passed by the Board in February, 2018, which noted that, “other major cities, such as London, Singapore and Stockholm, have successfully implemented a congestion pricing plan along with significant discounts to those living in the congestion zone. London’s plan, for example, offers a 90 percent discount, and substantial discounts are routinely offered even in New York such as [to] Staten Island residents using the Verrazzano Narrows Bridge.”

Indeed, the latest round of toll increases for bridges and tunnels operated by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority actually contains a further rollback to tolls for Staten Island residents using Verrazzano Bridge. When the toll for that span jumped to $19 earlier this week, the Cuomo Administration froze the resident rate at $5.50. This translates to a discount that has effectively increased from 68 percent to 72 percent. Mr. Cuomo justified this preferential treatment for Staten Island residents (who cannot drive onto or off of their island borough without paying a toll) by saying, “the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge is a critical link between Staten Island and the rest of New York, and residents don’t deserve to be nickel and dimed every time they cross it.” He added that the discount for residents, “is the right and fair thing to do and will ensure Staten Islanders keep more money in their pockets.”

No such accommodation is planned for residents of Lower Manhattan, who will (like Staten Island dwellers) be effectively trapped within the toll zone, unable to drive in or out without paying a fee that may be as high as $11.52, according to one version of the plan. Another variant of the proposal would charge residents for driving their cars on any street within the toll zone, even if they do not cross its boundaries. (This would be the equivalent of charging Staten Island residents a toll for taking their cars out of the garage, without driving over any bridge.)

The conspicuous absence of any carve-out for people who live within the toll zone is a departure from prevailing practice in multiple other locations around the City and the State, in addition to Staten Island. In Queens, residents of the Rockaways and Broad Channel pay $1.41 to traverse the Gil Hodges Memorial or Cross Bay Bridges, a discount of 67 percent from the full toll of $4.25. Further afield, residents of Grand Island (near the Canadian border) are given a 91 percent discount from the $1.00 toll paid by non-residents on the bridge that connects their community to the rest of New York State.

Congestion pricing has also been implemented internationally, where discounts for residents appear to be the norm. In London, for example, the program is widely regarded as a success, and people who live within the tolling zone are granted a discount of 90 percent from the full charge of approximately $15.23, at current exchange rates.

The lack of any local exemption could weigh heavily on Lower Manhattan communities where car ownership is higher than the norm for Manhattan as a whole. A 2015 study by the online real estate research site, AddressReport.com, found that Tribeca and Battery Park City are the two neighborhoods with the highest rates of car ownership anywhere in the borough, with 36 percent and 28 percent of households reporting that they keep at least one car. Conversely, the same report found that the Financial District has the second-lowest prevalence of car ownership in Manhattan, with only 14 percent of households reporting that they have a car.

Paul Goldstein, a member of Community Board 1 (CB1), where he chairs the Waterfront, Parks & Cultural Committee, and serves on the Land Use, Zoning & Economic Development Committee, observed in February that, “congestion pricing makes sense, but there should be provision like those put in place by other cities, such as London, giving residents reduced rates, so that when they use their vehicles, they are not charged an exorbitant fee. This is ridiculous. Not everyone who lives in Lower Manhattan is rich, although some people may think that’s the case. So this would be a reasonable compromise.”

In a separate, but related development, a Quinnipiac University Poll released on Tuesday finds that New York City voters oppose congestion pricing, by a margin of 54 to 41 percent, with 52 percent saying that it will not be effective in reducing traffic. In Manhattan, voters are against the idea by a 51 to 48 percent ratio. The same polls finds that opposition in the other boroughs ranges from 52 to 43 percent in Staten Island to 64 to 30 percent in the Bronx.