New York’s $15 congestion charge faces court challenge

A federal judge in New Jersey has heard opening arguments in the state’s case against New York City’s landmark congestion charge.

On Wednesday, a lawyer for New Jersey argued that the US$15 charge – which was finalised last week – was given the go-ahead by federal transportation officials without fully addressing how traffic and pollution would be affected.

“It isn’t about whether you like or don’t like congestion pricing,” the lawyer said in court. “The issue is whether the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) ‘took a hard look’ at the potential environmental effects.”

New Jersey has maintained that there could be a negative impact on the state, including a doubling of the amount of some pollutants in certain communities, which should have prompted the FHWA to do a full review and Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) under the National Environmental Protection Act.

The state’s governor Phil Murphy has previously criticised the scheme saying it would not help reduce pollution but would displace it from Manhattan to New Jersey while “charging our commuters an exorbitant fee on top of that”.

New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) has said the impacts on New Jersey communities were extensively studied in an environmental assessment.

In court papers, the authority said the assessment had revealed “no significant impacts”.

Background

The charge will mean most passenger cars pay US$15 a day to enter at 60th Street and below in Manhattan, with the programme expected to reduce traffic and boost air quality while raising US$1 billion annually for public transit improvements.

The MTA’s chairman and chief executive Janno Lieber has said the scheme was “the right thing to do”.

“New York has more traffic than any place in the United States, and now we’re doing something about it.”

Congestion pricing is expected to reduce the number of vehicles that enter Lower Manhattan by about 17 percent, according to a November study by an advisory committee reporting to the MTA.

The report also said that the total number of miles driven in 28 counties across the region would be reduced.

Almost 110 toll readers have already been installed by the MTA, and the charge could commence as soon as 15 June pending the outcome of the court’s decision.

Image: diane-picchiottino-unsplash