Hempstead's congestion pricing lawsuit

Daily Point

By the numbers in Hempstead’s congestion pricing lawsuit

In suing the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the Federal Highway Administration in an attempt to stop congestion pricing, the Town of Hempstead highlighted a number of data points it hoped would fit its narrative.

But the data Hempstead used — and the numbers Supervisor Don Clavin cited last week — didn’t tell the full story.

In its complaint, the town noted that Nassau County has “close to 700,000 workers, nearly 70% of whom commute by car.” Clavin last week at one point said all 700,000 residents commute to and from Manhattan.

But that, of course, is not true. Many Nassau residents work on Long Island, in the outer boroughs of New York City, or elsewhere. Then there are those who work from home — or don’t work at all.

Separately, the complaint noted that one-third of employed Nassau residents work in New York City and said 35,000 Long Islanders commute into New York City by car every day.

But that doesn’t account for those who work in the outer boroughs or outside the Central Business District. Indeed, studies pre-pandemic noted that an equal number of Long Islanders worked in Brooklyn and Queens, as compared with those who work in Manhattan.

The real numbers indicate that a far smaller pool of Long Islanders will be directly impacted by congestion pricing. According to the federal environmental assessment on congestion pricing, just 13,600 Nassau residents commute by car into Manhattan’s Central Business District, with another 6,200 commuting by car from Suffolk County. That’s compared to 55,600 Nassau residents and 20,200 Suffolk residents who use public transportation.

Those numbers were nowhere to be found in Hempstead’s lawsuit.

Separately, the complaint tried to make the case that town residents are particularly impacted by their age, noting that the workforce is aging — and that 26% of Nassau residents are 60 years old or older.

It noted that there are high rates of “primary care healthcare providers per capita” in lower and midtown Manhattan. But it drew no direct lines between whether the town’s older residents were driving into the CBD for health care.

Then there’s the data about the money raised. While Clavin last week said the revenue “isn’t coming back” to Long Island commuters, the lawsuit notes — correctly — that 10% of the revenue will go to the Long Island Rail Road. But it also argues that the MTA hasn’t “announced any substantial service upgrades that would benefit residents of the Town.”

Perhaps the most interesting question comes in one additional argument made in the complaint.

“Town employees also regularly travel on official business to Manhattan below 60th Street and the Town is obligated to pay for their travel expenses, including tolls.”

Why and how often are town employees traveling to Manhattan on town business?

The Point has filed a Freedom of Information request for that answer.

— Randi F. Marshall randi.marshall@newsday.com

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Quick Point

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— Michael Dobie michael.dobie@newsday.com

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