I know, I know, we’ve been trash-talking the New York City transportation system for many weeks now, so it’s time to discuss what Move NY proposes as a solution to not only cut down traffic and congestion, but also to improve mass transit and heal the sector’s gap in funds.
As previously discussed, much of the revenue generated by the transportation infrastructure that is vital to the economy of the region comes from tolls collected on bridge and tunnel crossings. The highest of these toll revenues are present on the perimeters of the City at remote places such as the Verrezano bridge, while they are nonexistent on the extremely congested and traversed structures closer to center of the city such as the East River bridges. To rebalance this system, Move NY proposes:
“to set tolls on a logical formula: higher tolls where transit options are most available and lower tolls where transit is either not available or a less viable option. This rationalization of tolls results in pricing all vehicle trips south of 60th Street into or out of the CBD but lowers the price of all trips with non-CBD origins or destinations”
*CBD consists of areas within Midtown and Downtown Manhattan
This boils down to the basic idea of inserting tolls on the East River bridges and other similar free passes, and lowering the massive tolls on more distant bridges and tunnels where commutes are generally more difficult and fewer transport options exist.
Now this might come off as poorly received at first by the general public, because obviously none of us want to suddenly start paying tolls for things we normally just take for granted, but the proponents have set forth ideas that can mitigate the money drain. The tolls would change during peak and off-peak hours to discourage driving during rush hour in hopes of spreading out the traffic over the course of the day (to whatever degree), and since all charges would be electronic, it would be possible to set it up as to never “double toll” an individual car for crossing multiple bridges in the same region.
In addition to introducing and enforcing fair & responsible tolls around the boroughs, Move NY also proposes to put a surcharge on cabs/app-based taxi services in Manhattan for driving within the densest parts of Manhattan to help alleviate the rampant congestion within the region and to incentivize other transport options and better yet, fewer trips in general.
After all of this new revenue has been generated, it will be completely reinvested into the transportation system, as safeguarded by legislation in this proposal, thus allowing for much needed improvements, updates, and expansions to the public transport network New Yorkers hate to love and love to hate. Dilapidated stops in the Bronx and in Brooklyn will be renovated, lines will be expanded, bus routes lengthened, and those pesky subway fares will either plateau or come down. This is perhaps this proposal’s greatest strength, as not only will it be reducing pollution, traffic, and fares for those who could go without it, but it seeks to kill two birds with one stone and bridge the funding gap for MTA and improve the health and efficiency of our transportation in a closed-loop system.
More news on Move NY to come, and until then read about it here [Source]
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