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Then take a bus/train/PATH. Simple way to avoid the congestion pricing is just don't drive in Manhattan. The entire purpose of this congestion pricing is to discourage driving and financially support MTA. If it discourages people from driving into Manhattan, then it's doing it's job lol
Purpose of this latest tax is to raise revenue. If congesting prices lowers traffic in Manhattan that is gravy; but make no mistake Albany is licking their chops at the predicted revenue stream.
Funds from congestion pricing are going to be used to back floating of bonds; so for each one billion raised state plans on getting 10 or 15 billion (forget exact numbers, but you can look them up) back from bond revenue.
This all begs the question what happens if people *do* stop driving and or find other ways to avoid paying CP fees. Well that would suck someone's nut because if revenues aren't high as predicted, then value of bonds would decrease meaning less overall revenue.
All taxes break down into a few predictable behaviors: people either pay and grumble, find ways to reduce or eliminate their exposure, find ways to recoup the costs either by seeking higher wages, raising prices, etc...; and so it goes....
One huge reason for the constant traffic in lower Manhattan is drivers (cars and trucks) seeking to avoid that huge toll over the VNB to get into NJ and points beyond. So they drive over the free East River bridges, through the free North River crossings and voila; they've saved nearly $20 off the bat.
Not necessarily - you can get to Queens via the Turnpike and Throgs Neck and back, avoiding the congestion pricing. True, you'd have to pay the Throgs Neck tho.
And that costs $8.50. I still consider that to be a double toll.
So drivers through the tunnels would get a credit. Which means double tolling. Yeah that's not cool at that point. However, I'm not opposed to NJ tolling NY drivers then. And I do think NY should be giving some percentage to PATH and NJT since so much of that money will be coming from NJ drivers. Idk the numbers, but I'm sure PATH is running over capacity every single rush hour.
Congestion pricing is not going to have any effect on reducing the number of cars on the road. One of the local news channels did a story on this last week. Every person they interviewed said the fees would not change their driving habits. The bottom line is that anyone who is willing or able to take a train or a bus into the city would already be doing so, even before the congestion pricing. Some people just have to drive into the city no matter what. A friend of mine works in sales and has to visit various offices throughout the city every day. So he often sits in 90 minute delays at the GWB every day simply because he doesn't have another reasonable alternative for his line of work.
then it will raise revenue, which is the only real reason for it.
I hate tax increases, toll increases, and general overspending by the government. That said, it's ridiculous how many people commute to midtown and downtown Manhattan by driving alone in a car. I'm glad to see them doing something about it. Is this a silver bullet? No, of course not. But every little bit helps.
They could have done this in a better manner- decrease the tolls during the off peak periods so that the congestion pricing is revenue neutral. That would really influence people- you could actually shape traffic in this case. If you had to pay $19 in tolls to arrive at work at 8am but $0 to arrive at 7am, the rush hour would spread out and be less congested at any given time. $19 on peak and $4 off peak. Or $25 peak and $0 off peak. One can dream...
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