Despite pushback, MTA moves ahead on Manhattan congestion pricing

The MTA is moving ahead at full speed with congestion pricing — beginning to install new tolling equipment in Manhattan, even as the plan faces growing opposition from elected leaders.

Workers were spotted over the weekend installing the congestion pricing hardware, which consists of cameras and sensors mounted on poles, on 61st Street on Manhattan’s West Side. Under the plan, vehicles will be charged up to $34.50 for driving below 60th Street in Manhattan, and up to $23 with E-ZPass.

MTA Chairman and CEO Janno Lieber last week confirmed that the authority “immediately kicked into gear” after receiving final approval last month from federal regulators, and directed contractors to begin installing the tolling equipment. The system is expected to be in place by May.

“We've started that installation as we've also started to build out the software, and what we call the back-office system for capturing toll information and generating bills and so on,” Lieber said at a Wednesday meeting of the MTA Board.

The installation work went on over the weekend despite the state of New Jersey on Friday filing a federal lawsuit to block the implementation of the MTA’s “Central Business District Tolling Plan." The lawsuit alleges that the MTA and the Federal Highway Administration did not thoroughly consider the environmental impacts of the plan, including the potential for it to disproportionately harm New Jersey, which would not receive any of the $1 billion in toll revenue expected to be generated annually.

On Friday, Gov. Kathy Hochul said New York would move forward with the plan “regardless” of the suit, insisting that “congestion pricing is going to happen.”

Staten Island officials joined their New Jersey counterparts in criticizing the plan. The borough would be hit particularly hard by the tolls, while not significantly benefiting from the transit infrastructure improvements the revenue would fund, said Borough President Vito Fossella, a Republican. Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-Staten Island), speaking to Fox 5 News on Monday, said she will propose legislation to block funding for the plan, which is costing the MTA $507 million to design and build.

“We want to stop this thing, or at least, we want to delay it until we can see if we get a new presidential administration in,” said Malliotakis, who, like New Jersey officials, argued that the environmental review process for congestion pricing was insufficient.

Gabriel Weil, an assistant professor at the Touro Law School specializing in environmental law, said the strategy of delaying congestion pricing until a new White House administration can kill it, was “plausible,” and may represent opponents’ “best case scenario.”

Short of that, Weil said, it’s unlikely that any lawsuit challenging the environmental review process would work to stop congestion pricing altogether, but might slow down the U.S. Department of Transportation in implementing the plan. 

“They can definitely make life harder for the DOT,” said Weil, who believes it will be tough to challenge congestion pricing on environmental grounds, because its “net impact on environmental quality is positive.”

“It’s pretty clear why people in the surrounding area would be unhappy about this, for reasons that really have nothing to do with the environment,” Weil said. 

On Friday, MTA external communications chief John McCarthy defended the environmental review process, which he said included six public hearings and responses to 80,000 comments. “We’re confident the federal approval — and the entire process — will stand up to scrutiny,” McCarthy said.

Staten Island residents are among 122 groups that are seeking exemptions from the new tolls, along with residents of Brooklyn, Manhattan, Orange County and Rockland County. The only formal exemption requests the MTA has said it received from Long Island residents are for those “battling cancer, 9/11-related illness, and other serious diseases.”

The six-member Traffic Mobility Review Board, which will recommend toll amounts to the MTA, met for the first time Wednesday and discussed potential exemptions, as well as discounts and credit for drivers who already paid a toll to enter Manhattan from a bridge or tunnel.

MTA chief operating officer Allison de Cereño advised board members that “the most effective way to ensure the lowest toll” is to make sure the maximum number of vehicles pay it.

“Everything is balanced. So, for every discount, exemption or crossing credit that is provided, everyone else who continues to drive in must make up that difference,” she said.

By Alfonso A. Castillo

alfonso.castillo@newsday.com@alfonsoreports

Alfonso Castillo has been reporting for Newsday since 1999 and covering the transportation beat since 2008. He grew up in the Bronx and Queens and now lives in Valley Stream with his wife and two sons.