Lawsuit charges NYC congestion pricing plan would hurt low-income, minority residents 

Another lawsuit has been filed seeking to halt this spring’s looming imposition of a congestion pricing plan to charge motorists for entering parts of Manhattan.

The suit, filed Thursday at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, alleges congestion pricing would adversely impact livelihoods and that the ramifications of the plan have been insufficiently studied.

“Plaintiffs will suffer negative environmental and socioeconomic consequences of Congestion Pricing,” the lawsuit says.

Congestion pricing has been debated for decades but was passed in 2019 under the governor at the time, Andrew Cuomo. Under the current pricing plan, motorists would need to pay $15 a day for driving below 60th Street, but there are discounts based on time and certain other factors. After a 4,000-page analysis, the federal government last year approved the plan.

Proponents regard congestion pricing as key to reducing traffic, making the air less polluted and raising money for mass transit. Opponents say it’s unfair to charge motorists to drive, would hurt the economy and is unfair to those who don't take mass transit.

The suit says that neighborhoods impacted by the pricing include “communities of low income, minority populations and neighborhoods designated as environmental justice communities” and the plan imposes “financial burdens upon the working poor with no mass transit options to commute to their employment.” 

The suit argues the Lower East Side, which borders the exempt-from-congestion pricing FDR Drive, will be unduly burdened and “will face increased pollution, congestion, health risks and socioeconomic concerns” as motorists opt to travel via a toll-free roadway.

The plaintiffs include several City Council members, residents of Manhattan’s Lower East Side and motorists who say they need to drive for health reasons. The defendants include the MTA, the Federal Highway Administration, the U.S. Department of Transportation and others.

Congestion pricing is expected to be implemented in the spring, MTA chairman and chief executive Janno Lieber said in December at an agency board meeting.

Jack Lester of East Hampton, the attorney who filed the suit, said people shouldn't be relegated to use an insufficiently funded mass transit system. 

“If you're forcing people out of their cars into a mass transit system that's currently insufficiently financed, that itself is a problem,” he said, adding: “They put the cart before the horse.”

Attorneys for the defendants could not be reached for comment.

Lieber last year dismissed claims that analysis of congestion pricing had been understudied.

“They studied it to death,” Lieber said of the analysts' work. “And we studied every intersection almost all the way to Philadelphia. And they studied the air quality, and they studied all it means, and they said that this initiative — this dramatic historic initiative — will not have a significant impact on the 28 million people in the region under federal environmental law. That’s what this means.”

Another lawsuit by New Jersey politicians challenging the imposition of congestion pricing is in negotiations, Lieber said at the meeting. An update on that litigation wasn't immediately available.

By Matthew Chayes

matthew.chayes@newsday.comchayesmatthew

Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.