NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump’s administration on Wednesday ordered a halt to New York City’s congestion pricing system, which thins traffic and funds mass transit by imposing high tolls on drivers entering some parts of Manhattan.
Launched on Jan. 5, the city’s system uses license plate readers to impose a $9 toll on most vehicles entering Manhattan neighborhoods south of Central Park. In its early days, transit officials say the toll has brought modest but measurable traffic reductions.
In a statement, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy announced the federal government has rescinded its approval of the program, calling it “slap in the face to working class Americans and small business owners.”
Duffy said his agency will work with the state on an “orderly termination of the tolls.”
Trump, whose namesake Trump Tower penthouse and other properties are within the congestion zone, had vowed to kill the plan as soon as he took office. He previously characterized it as a massive, regressive tax, saying “it will be virtually impossible for New York City to come back as long as the congestion tax is in effect.”
Similar tolling programs intended to get people into public transit by making driving cost-prohibitive have long existed in other global cities, including London, Stockholm, Milan and Singapore, but the system had never before been tried in the U.S.
The head of the state’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs the city’s subway and other public transit, has already filed a lawsuit aimed at keeping the congestion pricing program alive, according to MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber.
“It’s mystifying that after four years and 4,000 pages of federally-supervised environmental review — and barely three months after giving final approval to the Congestion Relief Program — USDOT would seek to totally reverse course,” Lieber said.
New York planned to use the revenue from tolls to issue bonds that would fund billions of dollars in improvements and repairs for the city’s creaky and cash-strapped transit system, which carries some 4 million riders daily.
The tolling system has been divisive. Transit advocates and environmentalists have heralded it as an innovative step to reduce air pollution from vehicle exhaust, make streets safer for pedestrians and bikers, while speeding up traffic for vehicles that truly need to be on the road, like delivery trucks, police cars and other first responders.
But the high tolls are hated by many New Yorkers who own cars, particularly those that live in the suburbs or parts of the city not well-served by the subway system.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, had fought the tolls and court and wrote a letter Trump on Inauguration Day imploring him to kill the program.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, also had misgivings. Last June, she abruptly halted the tolling system’s planned launch, citing concerns about its impact on the local economy. The Democrat then revived the toll in November following Trump’s election, but reduced the toll for passenger vehicles from $15 to $9. Since then, she has lauded it as a win for the city and has discussed the issue multiple times with the president.
