The border runs along Central Park. If you drive south of 60th Street through Manhattan, you should pay a city toll in the future. The fee is part of a new budget approved by New York State. It should reduce the number of cars in congested Manhattan and improve the flow of traffic from 2021.
Initial forecasts suggest that New York could earn a billion dollars with the fee. However, the exact amount and structure have not yet been determined. The last conversation was about a price of at least around eleven dollars a day, a little more than two coffees. One-passenger private cars and taxis are expected to incur higher charges than multi-passenger carpools such as those offered by services like Uber and Lyft, which together employ around 80,000 drivers in New York. During the day, prices should be higher, for example during rush hour, than at night and on weekends.
The money raised will flow into the modernization of local transport, reported US media: 80 percent in the renovation of the outdated New York subway, the rest for local transport to the surrounding area. According to surveys, a majority of citizens support the plans. Around a decade ago, the project for a city toll, at the time promoted by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, had failed.
New York’s decision is a milestone for city planners, traffic researchers and climate protectors, who repeatedly point out the traffic-reducing effects of such fees. Since it is the famous Big Apple, media around the world will be reporting on the plans over the next few days and thus triggering debates elsewhere. In the USA, for example, attention has focused directly on Los Angeles, where there are a lot of traffic jams but – unlike in New York – there are hardly any buses and trains.
In Europe, Stockholm, Milan and London, among others, charge entry fees in their inner cities, in some cases for more than a decade. The basic economic idea of the approaches, which differ in detail from city to city, is to take into account the costs of individual journeys that have not yet been priced in, for example for air pollution, noise and public space. What may be conclusive in theory is usually extremely difficult to implement politically – at least where motorists are a (voter) power. With Singapore, an authoritarian city-state was a pioneer of the model.
Politicians shy away from the fee
“If you survive the political valley of death and the positive effects become visible, then the support also grows” – this is how Stockholm’s City Councilor Jonas Eliasson once described his experience with the introduction of the city toll. He had once pushed the plans forward against fierce opposition. Today Stockholm is seen as an example of success: there are fewer traffic jams and even a majority of those motorists who have to pay the tolls are in favor of the city toll.
In Germany, Berlin, Munich, Hamburg and, by far, Leipzig, Stuttgart, Nuremberg and Frankfurt are the cities with the most traffic jams. In the capital, where motorists are stuck in traffic for an average of 154 hours, the time lost alone costs the economy more than 1,300 euros per car per year, according to a study by the traffic information provider Inrix.
“In the next few years, traffic jams will have serious consequences for the German economy and the population. If we want to reduce these pressures, we have to invest in intelligent transport systems, ”says Inrix analyst Trevor Reed, who evaluated data from 200 cities around the world for the study.
Since the diesel debate, the city toll has been on the political agenda again and again in particularly traffic-plagued cities in Germany, also as a possible means of countering driving bans, but it rarely lasts longer than a few days there. When Berlin’s Senator for Transport Regine Günther (non-party, for the Greens) recently noted that fewer cars in the city mean better driving for those who depend on their vehicles, she got a shit storm.
The article first appeared in our decision-maker briefing Tagesspiegel Background Mobility & Transport.
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