New York State’s congestion pricing program was once a promising method of charging drivers to use Manhattan’s most crowded streets. The abrupt announcement on Wednesday by Gov. Kathy Hochul to “indefinitely pause” the program may spell its permanent end, and not just for New York. The unfortunate decision may also harm other American cities’ efforts to similarly control traffic.
It didn’t have to be this way. The state and city can salvage something from this failure by heeding the right lesson: stop trying to do the right thing the wrong way.
The concept of congestion pricing, under which car drivers in Manhattan would have to pay $15 (more for truck drivers) to enter the zone south of 60th Street, is sound. It was first proposed by the Lindsay administration more than a half-century ago, and now street space is even scarcer, as the city has repurposed much of it for walkers and cyclists.
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Nicole Gelinas is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and contributing editor at City Journal. Follow her on Twitter here.
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