Mayor de Blasio Calls on MTA to Fast-Track Congestion Pricing

By Yehudit Garmaise

     As New York City reawakens, and jobs, activity, businesses, and tourists return to the city, “Congestion is, unfortunately, back, and it is coming back with a vengeance,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said this morning at his press conference.

    “We are starting to see congestion start to stand in the way of [our recovery],” the mayor said.

     The mayor even cited, from the New York Post this week, a headline that read: “NYC’s worst-in-the-nation traffic congestion threatens push to reopen.”

     “That is a true statement,” the mayor said. “This new report that this article references points out that New York City’s traffic has gotten worse in many ways than Los Angeles’s traffic, which was always historically the worst.

    “That is not acceptable. New Yorkers are spending too much time in their cars, stuck in traffic.”

    The way to end gridlock, as the mayor sees it, is for the Metropolitan Transportation Agency (MTA), which he accused of delaying and pointing fingers at the previous and current presidential administrations, to call a meeting to “fast-track” congestion pricing, in which drivers would be charged fees for using their cars during the rush hours and other peak times of car travel. 

    According to the mayor, congestion pricing “is ready to go,” and could provide the funding that could fix “any problem that the MTA says they have could be addressed with the funds,” which would total $15 billion, which Mayor de Blasio illustrated by standing up and holding up a large check made out with that amount.

    "We thought, because the legislature acted [on congestion pricing] that the city and state were on the same page," the mayor said. "We thought we had it done.

    "[When the MTA does act,] we can fix subway flooding, train signals, and if you want modern stations, $15 billion can make your day a lot better."

    Brooklyn Borough President-elect Antonio Reynoso also encouraged the MTA board to “finally get to work,” in pushing through congestion pricing.

     “We want to move to be a modern city,” Mr. Reynoso said. “[With congestion pricing] we can finally upgrade our subway stations, electric vehicles, new buses, new trains, reliable service, which means it is coming frequently and people know that they can get to work on time and won’t have to worry about it, with air conditioning: You name it.

    “We make it so that our public transportation system is the most attractive way or alternative to get around in the city of New York.

   “It can happen if we get the $15 billion that Mayor de Blasio is talking about.”