New York's Lower Manhattan toll has reduced congestion

New York's congestion charge is of course ground-breaking in the United States as the first application of congestion pricing to all lanes on an existing road (of course express lanes have offered the choice of priced lanes in many cities and on many routes, and there are toll roads with higher peak charges, but congestion pricing on previously untolled roads is new).

The scheme has been in place now since 5 January, so is well bedded in. It is timely to look at the results so far.  It is designed primarily to raise revenue, which is why charges apply 24/7 (albeit with a significant discount during 2100-0500 weekdays and 2100-0900 weekends), but that doesn't stop there being a noticeable demand impact.  It should encourage both mode shift and some trip consolidation (fewer motor vehicle trips), and also some time shift close to the 0500, 0900 and 2100 time period cutoffs. 

The conclusion after six months is that traffic flows better, transit patronage is up and there are considerable net revenues being generated from vehicles paying the charge (which unhelpfully is called a toll). 

The National Bureau of Economic Research Digest reports an 8% increase in the speed of car trips within the zone and to the zone, with a 2.5% increase in speeds from the zone. 

New York City traffic speeds

It also noted a 15% in average CBD speeds with a 20% increase in weekday afternoons (1300-1700) and 25% increase in weekend evenings (1500-2100). 

The MTA has published data about vehicle entries and bus travel times.  

In January, there was an 8% reduction in vehicles entering the charged zone compared to the baseline of the previous year. By June 2025 the reduction in vehicles entering the charged zone was at 14% compared to what was forecast had charging not been in place. It was down 10% in May, 12% in April and 13% in March. This is an ongoing trend, which should result in higher traffic speeds as well as improved air quality.

MTA also reports bus speeds. These indicate a modest increase overall compared to previous years, but the effects vary considerably when disaggregated to specific routes. Route B39 sees a 30% increase in speeds, M1 hardly any change, as it is obviously dependent on the impacts on specific routes. 

Route M1 average speeds by month

Route B39 average speeds by month

With a flat fee for all routes, it is obvious some routes will see significant improvements, while others will not (either because they are much less congested anyway, or demand elasticity is different for different origin-destination pairs).

Transit use has gone up. Subway patronage is up 6-8% per month. Long Island Railroad, Metro-North Railroad and bus patronage are also up by similar percentages.

The PATH (subway from New Jersey) has seen patronage increases in all but one month since January of 7-11% per month.

Congestion pricing tracker website is more informative, as you can compare the driving times for a wide range of routes into the zone by time of day and day pf the week.

The Lincoln Tunnel has clearly sees reduced travel times during the day, but the Queens-Midtown Tunnel (which was already tolled) has seen little impact. Arguably in the mornings, there has been an increase, because those paying for the toll of this (and multiple other crossings) have the toll as a credit towards the congestion charge. This suggests some shift in chosen crossing to the tunnel because it is not longer punitively priced compared to the other crossings.

Lincoln Tunnel travel times

                    Queens-Midtown Tunnel travel times

Some of the data shows time shift around peak/off peak charges, but largely involving a slight increase before and after the change in charging times. 

The website's conclusions so far are:

Overall, the policy has mostly reached its intended effects, at least directionally. 

Traffic delays have decreased significantly across the board within the congestion zone, on tunnels and bridges to the zone, and even in the surrounding boroughs. 

While time saved in traffic depends significantly on the route one takes, it has ranged from a few minutes shaved off an evening commute to a decrease of thirty minutes or more. Official MTA data shows tens of thousands fewer vehicles are entering the zone, resulting in reduced crashes and injuries.

Environmental effects have also been apparent: honking and noise complaints have more than halved in some areas of the Congestion Zone, and air quality has reportedly improved.

While long-term effects of Congestion Pricing will continue to evolve over the months and years to come and vary significantly based on individual experience, our current data paints an encouraging picture of the policy’s effectiveness.

Of course reduced travel times/ increased speeds are an obvious measure of success. Those paying are now getting a better experience, with improved journey times and less energy wasted (with lower emissions).  However there is a lot of additional data needed to form a complete picture of the impacts.  What I would hope to see by early 2026 is:

• Route by route average traffic speeds comparing free flow, pre-charging and post-charging 
• Data on what happened to the reduced traffic (mode shift, higher vehicle occupancy, reduced number of trips, diverted trips) based on surveys
• Compliance rates (proportion of vehicles paying the charge compared to those required to pay)
• Complaints rates (numbers of formal complaints about charges)
• Impacts on businesses located within the charging zone, including those relatively close to the 61st Street boundary (some may be winners, some losers if the charge deters some customers)
• Data comparing local air quality within and just outside the charging zone before and after the charge was introduced

Will this encourage more congestion pricing in the USA?

It's too early to tell, but clearly the sky didn't fall in NYC, and there are some measurable and noticeable improvements in travel times and changes in behaviour.  However, lower Manhattan is fairly unique in the United States. With the possible exception of downtown Washington DC, no other US city has a concentration of trips and employment so focused on its downtown that is responsible for much urban congestion (and lower Manhattan's geography lends itself to charging).  

The big mistake will be thinking that the answer for each city will be to implement a cordon as seen in New York, particularly one that runs 24/7. This is the sort of nonsense that was seen when London was introduced, as it was assumed by some that every city just needed an area charge, but no others have ever been implemented.  

New York is, so far, a success. It faces its charges being increased in future years to sustain those benefits, noting New York was introduced at a considerably lower rate schedule than was originally proposed as seen below.  In 2028, the rates are going up by around a third on average, and another 25% in 2030 to meet the revenue targets desired. The impacts of both of those increases will be interesting, because it is likely they will be much more modest than the initial impact, but they may also prove to be politically more difficult.

New York congestion charge rate schedule page 1

New York congestion charge rate schedule Page 2

US Federal Highways Administration terminates agreement authorising New York congestion charge

On 20 February 2025 the Executive Director of the US Federal Highways Administration wrote to the Commissioners of the New York State and City Departments of Transportation and the President of the MTA as follows, essentially requesting that the New York congestion charging scheme cease to operate from 21 March 2025 on "Federal aid highways":

Dear Commissioner Dominguez, Commissioner Rodriguez, and President Sheridan:

I am writing pursuant to Secretary Duffy’s February 19, 2025, letter terminating the November 21, 2024 Value Pricing Pilot Program (VPPP) Agreement under which the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has approved the implementation of tolls as part of the New York’s Central Business District Tolling Program (CBDTP). The Secretary’s letter stated that the FHWA will contact the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) and its project sponsors, Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority (TBTA) and New York City Department of Transportation (NYCDOT), to discuss the orderly cessation of toll operations under the CBDTP.

In order to provide NYSDOT and its project sponsors time to terminate operations of this pilot project in an orderly manner, this rescission of approval and termination of the November 21, 2024 Agreement will be effective on March 21, 2025. Accordingly, NYSDOT and its project sponsors must cease the collection of tolls on Federal-aid highways in the CBDTP area by March 21, 2025. Please work with Rick Marquis, the FHWA’s New York Division Administrator, to provide the necessary details and updates regarding the cessation of toll operations.

A Federal aid highway covers all Interstates and the Primary road system (FAP) and Secondary road system (FAS), so does not cover all roads within the zone, but it does include some. 

This follows a letter to the Governor of New York from the Secretary of Transportation expressing concern about the scheme's burden upon people in New York and New Jersey:  

I share the President’s concerns about the impacts to working class Americans who now have an additional financial burden to account for in their daily lives.  Users of the highway network within the CBD tolling area have already financed the construction and improvement of these highways through the payment of gas taxes and other taxes.  The recent imposition of this CBDTP pilot project upon residents, businesses, and commuters left highway users without any free highway alternative on which to travel within the relevant area.  Moreover, the revenues generated under this pilot program are directed toward the transit system as opposed to the highways.  I do not believe that this is a fair deal.

The use of revenues is clearly a key issue, but the misconstruing of the need for a fee to enable people without a free alternative is unfortunate. 

I have concluded that the scope of this pilot project as approved exceeds the authority authorized by Congress under VPPP.

This is hotly debated.   The Secretary's claims are that the legislation enabling the scheme did not envisage cordon pricing, compared to conventional tolls.  The other key claim is that as the scheme is primarily designed to raise revenue, not reduce congestion, then it is outside the scope of the Value Pricing Pilot Program.  

By contrast, the Governor of New York, Kathy Hochul is pushing back. Here is her speech to the MTA Board. and her statement on receipt of the letter from the Secretary of Transportation.

Her main claim is that it is not for the Federal Government to stop New York from introducing pricing on its roads. She is litigating against the claim of the Secretary of Transportation. 

So the battle for New York congestion charging goes to the courts...

New York's congestion charge is live, but it started on a Sunday

Yes New York is different from the rest of the United States, and Lower Manhattan is different from the rest of New York.  Every statistic around housing density, car use, mode share and supply of public transport demonstrates that.  However, today New York is the first US city to implement any form of urban road pricing/congestion charging that applies to existing roads which varies by time of day.

An initial report is of no drama at all, it being a Sunday as the scheme launch date. The New York Times has been live blogging about it, and the only point of note is apparently slightly less traffic. Winnie Hu from New York Times reported:

Traffic already appeared to be lighter on Sunday morning in the congestion zone. The average travel speed was 15.1 miles per hour at 8 a.m., or about 3 percent faster than the 14.6 miles per hour recorded at the same time on the first Sunday in January 2024, according to real-time data from INRIX, a transportation analytics firm.

That's with a US$9 a day charge from 0900-2100 in weekends. It is the same charge weekdays from 0500-2100, with a US$2.25 charge at all other times (this is for cars). The price schedule is not that complex, with variations based on vehicle size (road space occupancy), type of account and timing. The full schedule is here.

The "New York Central Business District Tolling Program" as it is officially called, is primarily about raising a lot of money for public transport, especially for the subway.  So it is a revenue scheme first and foremost, but which also has some clear objectives around improving both road network performance and environmental outcomes. 

With the lower rates approved by the Governor just over a month ago, it is expected to raise US$500m per annum in the first three years, with an increase after that to take it to around US$700m. If it were not for that level of revenue, it would not have the political support it needed.

From a transport (and environmental) policy point of view it has other useful objectives, it should reduce traffic, improve speeds and reduce emissions.

The big test will be tomorrow of course.

New York congestion charging is back : 5 January 2025

In May 2024 I wrote on how the Governor of New York, Kathy Hochul had suspended what was then called the Central Business District Tolling Program.  It would have been the first proper congestion charge in the USA, in the sense that it applied a charge to driving on existing roads to manage demand, and generate revenue.

Hochul suspended it for multiple reasons, but a key one was to defer the risk of its introduction costing the Democratic Party support in the November Federal Election for the House of Representatives.

With that all over, and with the perceived risk that the forthcoming Trump Administration may cancel the program, it is all "go".

The New York scheme is now called the Congestion Relief Zone and it will be in operation on 5 January.

All of the equipment is in place, it is ready to go, and with the passage of the Federal election, the Congestion Relief Zone in New York will go live on 5 January.  It was suspended in June, purportedly for policy reasons, but primarily a mix of concern over lawsuits and the effect the charge would have had on the elections to the House of Representatives.

The main change to the suspended scheme is a reduction in the peak time price from US$15 to US$9.

It's not clear whether the daytime period remains as previously proposed (0500-2100 weekdays and 0900-2100 weekends), but it is clear that the daytime charges will range from  US$4.50 for motorcycles, US$9 for cars and up to US$21.60 for large trucks and sightseeing buses.  Commuter buses will be exempt.

A per-trip surcharge of US$0.75 applies to taxis and black cars, and US$1.50 for app-placed trips (e.g. Uber). 

The off-peak discount is apparently 75%, explicitly to encourage off-peak truck deliveries. Albeit, the case for having any charges between 2200 and 0500 appears to be low.

The price will not increase until 2028 when it can be raised to US$12 for cars (with proportion increases for other vehicle classes) through to 2030.  

The charge is expected to enable borrowing of around US$15b in bonds to support the capital program of the New York MTA including:

· Second Avenue Subway Phase 2 extension to East Harlem

· Replacing signaling on 6 lines

· Improving accessibility at 20 stations

· New electric buses

A range of other projects are listed, including renovating parks and greenspaces.

The scheme is forecast to reduce VMT in Manhattan by 5% and a 10% reduction in the number of vehicles entering lower Manhattan. The charge is also being accompanied by other measures to reduce congestion including:

· Expanding enforcement of intersection blocking also known as “blocking the box” violations

· Expanding use of weigh-in-motion technology to enforce weight limits of trucks

· Raising threshold value for removing abandoned vehicles

· Permitting the City to impose surcharges on permits for construction that remove traffic lanes.

What next?

New York has around six weeks before the Congestion Relief Zone comes into effect, but there is a lot to do. A campaign to inform motorists of the coming zone will be critical, and it will be essential for as many as possible to be informed of what they need to do to be compliant with it. As a majority of vehicles entering lower Manhattan already have toll tag accounts for the multiple New York and New Jersey toll roads and crossings (Lincoln and Holland Tunnels carry the traffic from New Jersey and both are tolled), this should be easy for them. The real cost will come from the tens of thousands of occasional visitors, particular from the remainder of Manhattan which don’t have toll tag accounts. 

Eyes will be on the impacts of the charge, the capacity of the bus, subway and rail networks to handle increases in demand, and the profile of demand on the road network, but I suspect the greatest impact will be in reducing frequency of trips. Irregular travel will reduce. There will be modest modal shift, but the real impact will be shifting of some commercial demand to the off-peak period and reduction in trip frequencies.

The press release from the Governor claims motorists will "save" US$1500 per annum, but this is comparing the price schedule now to the one previously proposed. It is being sold as being an improvement by being lower price, but it is still a new charge for driving into lower Manhattan.  This press release covers the positive comments from multiple state and city politicians supportive of the plan.

A lot of the details have not been announced, but I expect most of what was previously announced will continue.  These details will need to be confirmed in the coming weeks, but all going well, the New Year will see New York as the next city globally to introduce congestion charging, and the first in the USA.

Yes its primary focus is in raising money, it would not be happening if the pressure to raise revenue to fund public transport renewals and improvements were not so high, and it is a blunt scheme that will not do much to change time of travel.

As I wrote before, it almost certainly is not a model for the rest of the US to follow, but the principle should hopefully be a success. It should reduce congestion, it should raise a lot of money and enable the city to operate more efficiently.  Let's hope it proves to be a great success.

New York is coming: but it is hardly a model for other US cities: UPDATE NEW YORK CANCELLED BY NEW YORK GOVERNOR

UPDATE: On Wednesday. New York State Governor Kathy Hochul issued a video statement in definitely suspending the New York congestion charge scheme. This is despite the entire system having been installed and tested with literally weeks to go before implementation. I'll write more about this soon, but it is a devastating set back for congestion pricing/time of use charging in the United States.  The reason being to "address the rising cost of living in New York" even though it would affect a tiny proportion of New York drivers or even commuters into lower Manhattan. It's completely bizarre that she claims one of the reasons for suspending the charge is because commuting on Mondays and Fridays is at a lower level than before the pandemic.  More details on the announcement are here.

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On the 30th of June 2024 New York will be the first city in the Americas to introduce time-of-day based road pricing on existing roads.  It may have been designed to generate revenue for the subway, commuter rail and bus systems in New York, but it is also expected to relieve congestion, let's hope it does.

New York Congestion  Charge Zone

What it is officially called is the "New York City Central Business District Tolling Program", which is a fair description.  It is arguably NOT congestion pricing because the rate structure being applied is blunt, and applies 24/7.  It is urban road pricing, but it is applying pricing at all times so may also reasonably be called a toll on existing roads.  It is being called the "Congestion Relief Zone" and I am sure officials in New York City will be relieved to see if it has a significant and sustained impact on congestion, I expect it probably will have some immediate impact as it is modelled to reduce the daily vehicle count by 100,000, which is around a 14% reduction in traffic overall. 

The time-of-day charging component is essentially a higher price during daylight hours, which are 0500-2100 weekdays and 0900-2100 weekends. 

Nevertheless, it is significant. Although the US is peppered with what are variably called HOT, express or toll lanes, which have peak (and in some cases dynamic) pricing of lanes, these are mostly conversions of HOV lanes to enable better utilisation of their capacity, by offering a premium level of service.  This is the first implementation of charging, varying by time-of-day, on previously untolled roads.

It is important to note that it is a cordon as in Stockholm, not an area charge, as in London. Trips wholly within the zone are not charged (setting aside special fees for taxis and for-hire vehicles), but relatively few vehicles are likely to never leave the zone and not enter again.

Note that one can drive all of the way around the periphery of lower Manhattan and not be subject to the charge, providing essentially a through route from the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel to the north of Manhattan. It's not clear this is necessary, but it has meant a lot of charging points have had to be installed on the roads connecting with FDR Drive and the West Side Highway (which at the southern end is an at-grade arterial route).

Price structure

During the peak period (0500-2100 weekdays and 0900-2100 weekends) cars and light commercial vehicles will be charged US$15, and during the off-peak period US$3.50.  This seems highly likely to encourage a rush of traffic before and after the peak period, although before 0500 is likely to be insignificant, after 2100 may be moreso.  

Motorcycles are to be charged US$7.50 during the peak and US$3.75 off-peak.

Smaller (rigid) trucks and some buses will be charged US$24 during the peak and $6 off-peak, whilst larger (articulated) trucks and tour buses will be charged US$36 during the peak and $9 off-peak. 

There are credits for vehicles that have entered lower Manhattan through tolled crossings, specifically the Holland, Lincoln, Queens-Midtown and Hugh. L. Carey Tunnel (Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel), but only during the peak period, not the overnight period.

The full price schedule is here and pictured at the bottom of this article.

Taxis and licensed per hire vehicles are subject to a different charge. Each trip from, to, within or through the zone will be subject to a fee of US$2.50 for for-hire vehicles, and for taxis, green cabs and black cars it will be US$1.25 per trip, with the fee not varying by time-of-day.

Cars and motorcycles are subject to a single charge per day, other vehicles are not. 

There is the power to impose a 25% surcharge on Gridlock Alert Days, which is when the UN General Assembly meets and "throughout the holiday season". 

Discounts and exemptions

Two discounts and five exemptions are listed.

These are:

• A 50% discount for low income vehicle owners enrolled in the Low Income Discount Plan. This applies after 10 trips per calendar month, to all peak period trips after that point.  This discount requires an application. It is eligible for those enrolled in a qualifying government assistance program or with an income no greater than US$50,000 in the previous calendar year as reported to the IRS. It requires an EZ-Pass toll account.
• A tax credit for residents within the zone with an income of no greater than US$60,000 in the previous calendar year.  Details on this tax credit are due in Fall 2024.
• Individual Disability Exemption Plan.  Applies to individuals who have disabilities or health conditions that prevent them using public transport. It either applies to a vehicle registered by the individual or identified by the individual as owned by a person the individual designates (such as a caregiver). 
• Organisational Disability Exemption Plan. Applies to organisations that transport people with disabilities. To qualify, vehicles must be used in the zone solely to transport people with disabilities.
• Emergency Vehicle Exemption. This includes vehicles for fire, ambulance, police, civil defence, corrections, blood and organ delivery, environmental and hazardous substances emergency response and sanitation patrol.
• Commuter and school bus exemption. Applies to buses providing scheduled commuter services, school buses contracted with the Department of Education and licensed commuter vans. Note this does apply to scheduled fixed route commuter and intercity buses, but not tour and charter buses.
• Specialized Government Owned Vehicle Exemption. Applies to vehicles providing public works, owned by federal, state, regional or local government. This includes garbage trucks, street-cleaning trucks, snow plows, pavers, bucket trucks, etc.

How to pay

The system is set up to prefer vehicle owners to use the EZ-Pass DSRC based toll system used on NY and NJ tolled roads already. All of the exemptions and discounts require EZ-Pass accounts. Those without an EZ-Pass will get "toll by mail" with invoices sent to the registered vehicle owner, identified by Automatic Number Plate Recognition, and will be subject to additional fees to recover the cost of number plate reading and posting the invoice (although the website indicates that these will be waived for the first 60 days).

How much money will it raise?

By law it is required to net US$1b per annum. One estimate, reported by New Jersey Member of the House of Representatives Josh Gottheimer is that it will be much much more, at around US$3.4b per annum, with most of the revenue (understandably) raised during weekdays. The report also noted around US$83m p.a. in revenue could decrease due to reductions in traffic reducing use of tolled crossings to lower Manhattan.  The net revenue in any case are to raise up to US$15b in debt to finance upgrades to the subway system.  It's not clear what motorists think of their money being used to pay for NYC transit systems, especially those driving from New Jersey (which is not served by the NYC Subway, but rather the Port Authority's PATH subway). 

New York Congestion Charge tariff schedule Part 1

New York Congestion Charge tariff schedule Part 2

What next?

It will be interesting to see the impact of the zone on traffic in NYC, both within and outside the zone and hopefully it will not worsen traffic on routes seeking to bypass it, or result in any major distortions of behaviour (or negatively impact businesses or residents near the edge of the zone at the north). It ought to reduce congestion during the day, improve the flow of commercial and private vehicle traffic and buses.

However, it is not likely to be followed by other US cities in the short-term. Lower Manhattan is a lot more like central London than other US cities, most of which have much more dispersed trip patterns using their highways.  For example, downtown Los Angeles has around 1% of all of the employment of the LA metro region, so a cordon for that location would have little impact on congestion except perhaps on some offramp or routes approaching it. That isn't to mean that downtown cordons are not worth considering, but in themselves they will have little impact on congestion.

My hope is that New York will be a success, and may spur interest elsewhere in the US, and for New York to expand in some form, whether it be additional zones or some corridor charging on major highways from the New York State side (which don't have tolling).  New York succeeding should help to encourage more debate and discussion about using congestion pricing to reduce congestion even though the primary driver of this scheme is to generate revenue for the subway.

Don't make road pricing a tool in a "war on cars"

The BBC website, under its “Future Planet” science-based section, published an article on 23 January 2024 called “From London to New York: Can quitting cars be popular?” It has received quite a bit of acclaim, but although the article does make a case for the benefits of reducing car traffic in major cities, it is largely one-sided in a way that, largely, “preaches to the choir” about a wide range of policy measures with the objective of making driving less attractive in cities.

Road pricing is a powerful policy tool that can significantly improve the efficiency and the environmental impact of a road network, as well as providing an efficient way to fairly recover the costs of capital and maintenance of the network and ensure demand does not overwhelm supply. It can also generate net revenues for improvements, or simply net revenues as a return on the capital tied up in the network, for complementary purposes, such as improving infrastructure for alternatives.

However, undoubtedly the biggest barrier to implementation of road pricing is concern that it is a tool to penalise and punish, or to tax, rather than a tool to deliver better outcomes for those who choose to pay, as well as those who benefit from less congestion and well-maintained roads. This includes those riding buses on them, walking, cycling and those who live, work or own businesses, or community facilities adjacent to roads.  It is extraordinarily difficult to convince the public and as a result, many politicians, that any form of road pricing should be introduced, because many don’t believe there are benefits to them from pricing roads.  It is difficult enough to convince people that electric cars should pay a distance-based road user charge, because they are not subject to fuel tax, let alone convince people to pay governments to use roads directly.

This article doesn’t help in changing that perception.

There are real perceptions about a war on cars, the article cites someone who produces a podcast called “War on Cars”, so it isn’t entirely a conspiracy theory. There have long been policies to discourage car use in cities, whether it is removal or caps on parking, slower speed limits, traffic light phasing or reducing road capacity. Road pricing can have a range of objectives, but to treat it only as a tool to reduce driving, rather than also a tool to improve the conditions for those who remain on the road, is a mistake.

There are precious few congestion pricing systems in operation around the world. In Europe there remain only five cities of scale with congestion pricing: London, Stockholm, Gothenburg, Milan and Olso although plenty more have investigated it (and a few Norwegian cities with toll rings that exist primarily to raise revenue).  Abu Dhabi, Doha and Dubai all have pricing systems, and further east is Singapore. New York will be the first in the US, but Lower Manhattan is very different from pretty much any other urban area in the US.

The reason for this is public opposition. 

It’s absolutely true that after pricing is introduced it generally gains better acceptance, as sceptical drivers notice that the impacts are not bad, and in some cases improve conditions. This is certainly the experience in London and Stockholm, although it was not the experience in Gothenburg, because Gothenburg’s congestion tax was applied far too broadly, in geographic and temporal terms (to locations at times where/when there was no congestion). Opposition after it was introduced persisted for some years. A referendum held a year after it was introduced in 2013 saw 57% oppose it, but it was ignored as local politicians had committed to spending the revenue on large projects (and there was no other means to pay for them). 

The article quotes Leo Murray, director of innovation at climate charity “Possible” saying “We can't find a single example of a traffic-reduction measure that's been in place for more than two years that's then gone on to be removed because of a lack of public support”.

Well, I can. It’s the Western Extension of the London Congestion Charge. It was introduced in 2007 and removed at the end of 2010. It was removed because it was poorly designed (it granted residents in one of the wealthiest parts of London a 90% discount for driving into the central zone), poorly focused and implemented for partisan political reasons (the Mayor of London wanted to target a wealthy area, but perversely gave them discounts to drive to the centre of London that poorer area residents did not have). 

So, in short, you can’t just introduce road pricing and assume the public will accept it. Note the Stockholm congestion tax referendum is cited as giving its scheme approval, but in fact the referendum was held across many municipalities across metro Stockholm, where a majority voted against the congestion tax, and it was only by ignoring those other municipalities that it was said that the majority voted for the congestion tax. Stockholm Municipality voted for it, but only consists of 38% of the population of metro Stockholm. Had the votes in all Stockholm municipalities been taken into account, it would have been a vote of 52.5% against road pricing.

Again, the article seems to be dismissive of how hard road pricing is to introduce.

The article returns to London with the correct point that the congestion charge was more popular after it was introduced, but with the closure of the Western Extension, the congestion charge in London has the same geographic scope as it had when it was introduced in 2003, which is roughly 1% of the area of metropolitan London.  It hasn’t expanded because there isn’t the political will or public support, in no small part because congestion in central London has essentially returned to pre-congestion charge levels.  It is difficult to convince the public that expanding the congestion charge will reduce congestion, when the existing charge has not kept up with demand, and when significant amounts of road capacity is reallocated from general traffic to cycling and walking capacity.  London was a success, but why has no other UK city (Durham doesn’t count in this context) have a congestion charge?  It’s fairly basic – too many of those advocating for it, don’t want to deliver any benefits to those who would pay it.  Furthermore, it’s simply wrong to cite the ULEZ expansion and ignore the significant opposition to it.  

New York’s implementation of the Central Business District Tolling Program is cited as a key example, and questions whether New York has learned from elsewhere, although it is a stretch to call it congestion pricing.  The article says “The scheme will also operate a fluctuating charge system, with smaller fees during off-peak hours, providing flexibility”. The charges don’t “fluctuate” unless it is meant that they have just two time zones over a 24 hour period (which are different during weekend. Off-peak is… 2100-0500 weekdays. Unless you are currently driving around 2000 or 0530, you probably don’t think this is “flexible”.  The London Congestion Charge has shorter operating hours, and although it is a flat fee, 0700-1800 weekdays provides a bit more flexibility to avoid it. 

Its program is designed primarily to raise revenue for the ailing subway network, which is desperately in need of capital renewal.  Reducing congestion and emissions matter, but it has been designed, in terms of hours of operation and scope, to raise money.  This is all very well, but lower Manhattan is hardly translatable to most other cities in the USA. I’m sceptical as to whether it will generate more than some more studies in the next five years, just because of the tendency of many engineering consultancies to simply look to “copy and paste” what is done in another city onto whatever city they are commissioned to study.  That would be a mistake and would take road pricing backwards in any city that simply commissions a quick study from people with no experience on the topic, to just “do a New York”.  This is what happened in the UK for a few years after London (although Manchester had quite a different scheme design), and nothing came of it.

The BBC article goes off-topic when it claims Oregon is “considering following suit”, by saying it is testing a “more extensive system” based on vehicle-miles travelled. No it is not. This is the OReGO program, which is testing road usage charging (RUC) as a way of charging electric and other ultra-fuel efficient motor vehicles to use all public roads in Oregon, as a replacement of state fuel taxes. It is absolutely not planned to reduce car traffic, and is not focused on cities. It is about sustainable and fair charging of light vehicles to pay to maintain the road network, and it is really important to keep these objectives distinct and different. 

I hope New York can spur wider interest in the US for congestion pricing, and not on the basis of overly simplistic drawing a cordon around a downtown area. There are a range of different solutions, depending on the definition of the problem, but regardless of what is considered, it is extraordinarily difficult to get social licence, so to speak, for congestion pricing when a key objective is not to reduce congestion and improve travel times for those that are expected to pay.

In that context the global examples worth citing as success stories are Singapore, Stockholm and the evolution of the Oslo toll ring to a congestion charge.  London as a success story lasted around five or so years.  The world is littered with studies that went nowhere. Hong Kong has been studying congestion pricing for nearly 40 years, Copenhagen, Helsinki and the Netherlands more generally have tried and failed due to public opposition.  Consider that many would perceive those cities (and country) to have enviable standards of public transport, and levels of cycling, and it is still difficult.

Congestion pricing can deliver so many potential benefits for cities, firstly by freeing up sclerotic networks that drag productivity and efficiency down, by adding to the cost of freight and the cost of services needed to make cities function.  So much is invisible, because it is not delivered by government, but electricians, plumbers, builders, painters, tilers etc, all can do less at higher cost, because of congestion, and almost none of them have any modal choice.  Road freight supplies the food, the clothing, the consumables (toilet paper!), the appliances and building materials that keep people alive and keep infrastructure maintained.  Then there are people who need cars for specific trips, either because of where they are going or what they are carrying, or more generally there is urgency in a trip, such as for medical purposes or an urgent appointment, or a flight.  Big cities work well with all modes well catered for, and operating efficiently, but buses can't always have their own lanes, and get caught up in traffic.  

Roads that enable traffic to flow efficiently help all of this, they also help contain emissions by not wasting fuel on either idling or erratic stop/start movements (this includes EVs), and improve access, as gridlocked streets hinder everyone (let alone emergency services from time to time).  It is entirely understandable and logical to seek to reduce car traffic on some city streets, because of how space inefficient they are, but cars have their place. In central London many users of the congestion charge are occasional drivers, on one-off trips for any variety of reasons (e.g., medical appointment, collecting a purchase) and the use of taxis and rideshare services reflects demand that is met by more car use elsewhere.  Road pricing can deliver significant modal shift and can reduce travel demand, but in doing so it shouldn't be seen as a tool to punish drivers, but just the application of a concept (price) to an underpriced and scarce resource - road space.

While I always encourage those seeking to promote road pricing, the record of the past 25-30 years (since technology has made electronic pricing feasible) is that it is very difficult to implement because of public acceptability.  Seeing it or promoting it as a tool to wage “the war on cars” just makes that even more difficult. 

Will New York congestion pricing encourage more US cities to follow?

The recent news that the New York lower Manhattan congestion pricing proposal has received Federal endorsement (which was needed as some of the roads to be charged are Federally funded) seems likely to be the last major barrier before the proposal can be actually implemented.  It has taken some time, not least because the Trump Administration neither progressed nor rejected the proposal.

The proposal is basically an area charge around lower Manhattan, which is called the New York City Central Business District Tolling Program.  This is a fair title as it probably isn't sophisticated enough to really justify the term "congestion pricing" although it should reduce congestion, it is essentially designed to raise revenue.  

New York congestion pricing concept map

There are some oddities about the proposal, notably that the road around the periphery of lower Manhattan is exempt from the charge, when for almost all trips is only worth driving on to access the zone within it.  It is notably also an area charge, which is a concept only implemented elsewhere in London (and then it was only because the Automatic Number Plate Recognition technology in 2003 had such a poor read reliability rate that the target was to get each vehicle to pass around three sets of cameras to be sure it would be identified).  So it will charge vehicles entering AND vehicles remaining within the area during operating hours.

Key characteristics

Vehicles will only be charged ONCE per day, so it won't penalise frequent movements (this will appeal to commercial traffic, but should dissuade some occasional traffic and regular commuters).

Residents earning less than US$60,000 a year will get a tax credit for tolls paid, essentially a low income exemption for residents of the zone. It is currently proposed that a 25% discount would apply for low-income frequent drivers on the full CBD E-ZPass toll rate after the first 10 trips in each calendar month (excluding the overnight period)

Emergency vehicles and vehicles used to transport people with disabilities will be exempt (the latter category could be quite extensive!).

A new entity called the Traffic Mobility Review Board would recommend the rates table, with prices to vary by time-of-day with a mandate to consider how traffic might move, effects on air quality, costs, effects on the public and safety.  Indications are that prices could be between US$9 and US$23 depending on time of day, with overnight charges of US$5.

Rates from midnight till 0400 must be no more than 50% of that of peak charges (you may question why there is a fee at all at that time, but this is because the main objective is revenue). 

Drivers paying existing river crossing tolls (not all river crossings have tolls) will get those tolls credited to paying the Lower Manhattan charge.

Charges will be levied by detecting E-ZPass toll tags. Vehicles without toll tags will be charged through Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras which will be used to identify the vehicle's owner through Departments of Motor Vehicles, and be mailed to the owner. 

$US$207.5million is committed over five years to mitigate negative impacts including the low-income discount, monitoring of traffic, air quality and transit stations, 

Objectives and expected results

Officially the goals are:

• Reduce daily vehicle-miles traveled within the Manhattan CBD by at least 5 percent.
• Reduce the number of vehicles entering the Manhattan CBD daily by at least 10 percent.
• Create a funding source for capital improvements and generate sufficient annual net revenues to fund $15 billion for capital projects for the MTA Capital Program
• Establish a tolling program consistent with the purposes underlying the New York State legislation entitled the MTA Reform and Traffic Mobility Act.

1. Net revenues!  80% of net revenues will be used to improve and modernise New York City Transit (subway and buses), 10% to Long Island Rail Road, 10% to Metro-North Railroad. Zero revenue will be used to support even maintenance of the roads being charged let alone improvements to them. In effect, it is a transfer from motor vehicle operators to transit providers and their customers. Around US$1 billion in net revenues is expected.

2. Reducing congestion (although no formal targets have been set).  From the document filed with FHWA,  It is expected that there would be a 15-20% reduction in daily vehicles entering the charged area. Commuter car trips are expected to drop by 5-11%.  Notably through trips by trucks are estimated to drop by between 21 and 81% (these are trucks with no origin or destination in the zone).  Public transport trips are estimated to increase by 1-3% in the area.  The net effect outside the charged area is expected to be a reduction of 0-1% in overall traffic volumes. Effects on active travel are expected to be small.   Taxi trips are estimated to change ranging from a 1.5% increase to a 16.8% decrease in trips.

There are also intended to be modest improvements in air quality, but this is largely not being highlighted.

New York is fairly special

Lower Manhattan is unlike much of New York, let alone other US cities.  It has much more of the characteristics of central London, than indeed most US downtown areas, and it has a density of public transport availability that is unmatched in any other US city. This ought to make it the easiest location to implement congestion pricing, (even though it is pricing road use 24/7).  617,000 people live in the Manhattan CBD, but 80% do not own or have ready access to a car, this compares to 9% across the USA.  That is primarily by choice, because of the walkability of so much of this relatively densely developed area, the availability of public transport options, and the lack of parking for residents' vehicles. 

Manhattan car ownership compared to the US

Approximately 1.5 million are employed in the Manhattan CBD, of which 84% typically commute from outside the CBD (pre-Covid).  65% commute from other suburbs of NYC, 18% from New Jersey, 8% from Long Island, and 7% from other New York counties. 85% commute using public transport, 11% by car and the remainder by active modes, taxi/rideshare vehicle.  Again this is completely unlike commuter patterns elsewhere in the United States.

Manhattan commuter mode shares

The value of time of congestion lost in New York is estimated to be US$1,595 per driver per year in the NYC region, equal to 102 hours of lost time.  On one measure bus speeds have dropped 28% in the Manhattan CBD since 2010.

However it is far from being all about commuters, the data also indicates that 7.7 million people enter and exit the Manhattan CBD on an average weekday, 75% by public transport, but 24% by car, taxi, ride share vehicle or truck, indicating that there is a far more significant problem of all day travel in Manhattan than commuter peaks. This has parallels with other large dense cities such as London, whereby the motor vehicle traffic is largely not AM/PM peak commuter driven in the city centre.  The numbers of vehicles entering Manhattan CBD each weekday is equal to the entire population of Phoenix, AZ. 

The profile of this motor vehicle traffic is astounding. 

Profile of Manhattan CBD vehicle entry/exit

Volumes do peak inbound in the AM, but largely stay steady from noon until 2200 and outbound trip peak at 0700 and grow slowly until 1600 and then only drop off significantly after 2200.

This explains the desire to have charging across the day (although 2300-0500 seems excessive). 

This also explains why New York is special, as most other US cities do not have a CBD anywhere near as dominant or dense as New York. While most have a central business district of some importance (see Chicago, Washington DC, San Francisco), and could implement some sort of cordon or area charge in such locations, the scale and density of traffic in those locations does not match that of lower Manhattan.  Furthermore, it is critical to understand that any schemes would be unlikely to have a significant affect on traffic more widely across those cities. That's because most traffic movement in US cities does not starting or terminating in the downtown, but rather criss-crossing smaller commercial centres and locations of employment, as people live and work in a vast array of different places. US cities in most cases are highly dispersed. 

Even the New York scheme is not expected to have a significant impact on traffic beyond Manhattan, with an estimated reduction of 1% across New York City more widely. 

So if congestion pricing is to be implemented primarily to resolve congestion, unless the focus is the downtown area and roads approaching it, a downtown cordon is unlikely to achieve much from a network point of view.  

This is not to say there is not merit in targeting car trips to downtown areas at peak times to reduce congestion in those areas and encourage modal and time of day shift (and as a result free up some road space on corridors approaching those areas).  There certainly is, but congestion pricing has proven extremely difficult to implement in the US because there is excessive focus on revenue raising to support public transport, rather than improving the level of service for those paying to use the roads.

In US cities it is much more likely that significant improvements to congestion will be achieved not by pricing access to downtown areas, but by pricing corridors (and ultimately pricing whole networks).  Corridor pricing, as seen in Singapore, is much more likely to encourage the behaviour shift needed to optimise throughput on congested roads.  However to understand that, city planners and politicians have to broaden understanding of congestion pricing being just about encouraging modal shift, for it is just as much about changing time of travel and frequency of travel.  Indeed in US cities it is likely to be moreso.  In Stockholm, the data on behaviour change for that relatively large inner city cordon, indicates that only 40% of the reduction in car trips during charged periods was attributable to modal shift. That is certainly important, but the remainder is a whole set of other behaviours including:

• Shifting driving time from the peak period to the off-peak period (with lower charges) or uncharged period either in one direction or both directions of travel.
• Reducing frequency of driving, by consolidating appointments and activities into fewer trips.  This means the same productive activities were able to be carried out with less frequent driving. 

To date the main policy focus from cities in the US wanting congestion pricing has been an eye on revenue, which is understandable, as there is a lot of potential to raise money. However, public acceptability is rarely built upon what is seen as a new tax.  Lower Manhattan is special because most people who live there don't have a car, and most people who commute or travel into it, don't do so by car, but although none of the net revenues will be used to directly benefit those paying, there IS a focus on achieving results in terms of reduced congestion. 

The Traffic Mobility Review Board is a good measure to ensure that the policy and rate setting around the scheme will deliver net benefits, although the membership of the Board is required to have one member recommended by the Mayor of the City of New York, one member reside in the Metro-North Railroad region, and one member in the Long Island Rail Road region.  The board composition is available here.

My expectation is that there will be more studies on congestion pricing/charging, but getting public acceptability for it will continue to prove difficult. That is because far too many developing such programs are focused on raising revenue, without thinking about how pricing can improve conditions for those who still drive (New York has not ignored this). Some ignore the enormous benefits pricing can deliver to improving bus capacity and reliability, just because of reductions in congestion. Finally, far too many look at a program like New York (or London) and just try to copy it, rather than thinking more broadly about the ways congestion pricing can be implemented on a road network.  There are far better examples than London, and more sophisticated systems and policies in place in cities such as Stockholm and Singapore, but it is entirely possible to do something quite different, and be effective.

Congestion pricing needs to be led by policy objectives and be tailored carefully to local conditions. A key reason it failed to expand in the UK beyond London is that too many advocates did not seek to design to target congestion, but to target potential revenue, and far too many wanted to communicate to those who they wanted to spend net revenues on, not those who would pay.

After all, congestion pricing that doesn't reduce congestion is just another tax.

What next?

The scheme can be implemented around early to mid 2024, after contractors, design, build, install and test equipment to be installed at the roadside.  Meanwhile the Traffic Mobility Review Board will develop recommendations for a rate schedule, which will need to be approved by the MTA Board for public consultation and hearings, before final decisions are made. 

It can only be hoped that its implementation is a great success, that it meaningfully reduces congestion in lower Manhattan (and the routes approaching it), that this improves air quality and improves mobility overall, and helps to catalyse thinking across the United States about the merits of congestion pricing.

However, most of all I hope it catalyses thinking about how congestion pricing needs to be tailored for each city, to meet its needs, its objectives and to develop the public acceptability needed to avoid it being a major controversy.

London, after all, became the first and to date the ONLY large city in the UK to implement congestion charging, and it remains only applied to the centre of London (hopefully more journalists will not think the Low Emission Zone and Ultra Low Emission Zones in London are congestion charging zones, they absolutely are not). 

 

Congestion pricing - the United States awakens

Singapore pioneered a basic form of urban congestion pricing in 1975, and introduced what is still the most sophisticated, economically rational and effective congestion pricing in the world in 1998, called ERP (Electronic Road Pricing).  In 2020 it is transitioning its operating technology to GNSS On Board Units (albeit to initially apply the same mix of corridor and cordon charging as applies today, but with the focus on delivering more information about pricing, traffic, parking and alternative modes through the system).

However, if you've been following the recent very public debates and commentaries about congestion pricing in the USA you'd be excused for thinking it is new and innovative.  Innovative it is, it is just that the US has come a bit late to the concept, but what is driving it is not so much congestion, but the desire to use congestion pricing to raise revenue - typically not for roads.

For many years congestion pricing in the USA has largely been referred to in the context of express/HOT/toll lanes. Although such lanes offer options to pay to bypass congestion on some highways, they are not "comprehensive" in addressing congestion and more importantly are not technically able to be implementing except on roads with limited access. In most cases they have been implemented by converting high occupancy vehicle lanes to HOT/toll lanes. It is rarely economic to build new lanes and charge just for them (because there is insufficient willingness to pay for the capital costs of new capacity, particularly when such capacity may only be utilised for short periods during weekdays), so HOT/toll lanes are rarely seen outside the USA.

The positive example of toll lanes is that they demonstrate that the instrument of price is effective in managing demand so that a road can operate in free flow conditions, but of course such lanes are not practical on most roads and they always have an unpriced alternative.  At best they offer an option in some cases, and demonstrate the concept.

So full congestion pricing has not been seen in the US to date. By that I don't mean having peak pricing on an existing toll road to spread demand on that road (this is seen on many crossings, such as the Golden Gate Bridge, E-407 Toronto and the Sydney Harbour Crossings), but rather pricing of a network or placing a cordon (either on its own or as an area charge) on a zone, with priced access at set times/days.

This isn't common as all. Although there are many low emission zones in European cities (which prohibit or heavily charge vehicles that don't meet low or ultra-low emission standards) and restricted access zones to cities (this is seen in many Italian cities, keen to preserve historic centres of cities ill suited to large volumes of vehicle traffic), the only cities that charge a network or a zone for access on a significant scale are:

- Singapore

- London

- Stockholm

- Gothenburg

- Milan

- Dubai

- Tehran.

There are a handful of smaller examples, Oslo transitioned from a cordon set up for revenue raising to one that has a congestion management purpose now, but by and large congestion pricing is hard to implement.  It's been investigated in multiple cities in the UK (Bristol, Cambridge, Leeds, Manchester, Edinburgh) and elsewhere in Europe (Dublin, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Helsinki), but has always come up against one major issue - public opposition.


What has woken up the US?

How about the US then? Suddenly cities, states and the media have discovered congestion pricing because of one simple reason - New York is going to do it. This follows previous attempts to introduce it, most notably by former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who had his proposal for a cordon on lower Manhattan vetoed by the State Legislature.

The New York Senate and Assembly have approved it, along with the State Governor. The details are to be worked out by a new Traffic Mobility Review Board, but it is essentially a cordon that starts at 60th St, excluding FDR Drive and the West Side Highway. All of the net revenue is to spent on the public transport network, specifically the subway, bus network, the Long Island RailRoad and Metro-North. Private cars are only to be charged once a day, whereas ridehailing/sharing and taxi services are already subject to a surcharge of between US$0.75-US$2.75 per trip, depending on the service since 2 February 2019.  Although Charles Komanoff indicates that the effects will be much less than promised (still a 2.5% increase in average traffic speeds is worthwhile).

Some of the details to be worked out include:

· Charge rates (will they vary by vehicle type)

· Area charge (will vehicles be charged for circulating within the cordon as well as or separately from crossing the cordon)

· Direction of charge (will there be a charge for entering AND exiting the cordon)

· Time of operation

· Variation of charge by time of day

· Discounts and exemptions (it might be fair to assume that emergency vehicles and NYC transit vehicles might be exempt, but will the ride hail/share surcharge liable vehicles be exempt too)

· How those entering lower Manhattan on tolled crossings will be treated

New York is basically implementing a simple charge, primarily to raise revenue for other modes, so it will be interesting to see what impact it has and whether it is designed to spread demand by time of day, as much as it is to raise revenue. It will clearly be a trailblazer, although it is unlikely that other US city has either the density of public transport or geography to lend itself to a relatively simple cordon as the solution.

What about the rest of the US?

San Francisco has studied charging before, and looks like pursuing it again. The San Francisco County Transportation Board Authority voted earlier this year to spend US$0.5m on a study of downtown congestion pricing, suggesting that it has already decided that a downtown cordon is worth pursuing. It will be interesting to see what impacts that might have, and particularly how boundary issues are addressed. The San Francisco Mobility Trends report indicated that "vehicular traffic entering San Francisco grew 27% since 2010, although public transport use also rose 5% and cycling by 6%, on a 9% population increase (indicating that the growth in population is pushing a big increase in driving), with a decrease in private car travel speeds by 23%. It's hardly surprising that pricing access to downtown is a priority, although hopefully it will mean pricing that varies by time of day.

Los Angeles has already had a study released by Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) which proposed a pilot cordon at Westside LA, for a number of reasons (see page 94 of the below report).

Proposed Westside LA cordon from SCAG study

 The Mobility Go Zone and Pricing Feasibility Study indicated that it could result in a 19% drop in private cars entering charged zones, and a 9% mode shift to public transit, with 7% each to walking and cycling. Whilst this might be a good place to start, LA is going to need a much more comprehensive solution to address congestion across the region. LA Metro is about to launch a study that looks more widely at options, with the intention that pricing would support a package of improvements to public transport and active modes.

Boston, Portland, Seattle and Washington DC are all considering congestion pricing, which has to be welcome. The US has gone through a couple of eras in urban transport policy, from the 1940s to the 1970s the focus was almost entirely on building roads to meet demand. That has tailed off, with a focus from the 1970s of building (mostly rail-based) public transport infrastructure to try to attract motorists from their cars, in other words supplying alternatives. More recently, cycling has had a boost in some cities, but the primary argument in all cities is one of what to supply, rather than how to manage existing demand and supply.

New York's latest interest in congestion pricing

Some might say it took long enough, but for New York Governor Andrew Cuomo it might just be in the nick of time as he is reported in the New York Times as saying that "Congestion pricing is an idea whose time has come".

Well I'd say its time had come years ago, after all the technology to do it has been proven since the 1990s, and the actual results of implementing it have been seen in Singapore, London, Stockholm and Gothenburg (although London's success has not been sustained for multiple reasons and Gothenburg's scheme is too big and was focused on revenue collection).

Few need to be reminded of the severity of New York's congestion, and also the enormous funding problem for the city's road and public transport networks.  Although much could be written on how it could improve its planning, contracting and management of its road network, in terms of maintenance (i.e. apply world class asset manegement systems, introduce predictive maintenance and fund it on an asset lifecycle), let alone its public transport system, and why it appears to cost more than anywhere else.  

It remains that there is a huge backlog in renewals for both the roads and the subway network. 

Previous plans

I've written before about the two past attempts to introduce either congestion charging or toll reforms that would have had some of the same effects.

New York has been here before, with the first attempt to introduce congestion charging seen by Mayor Bloomberg.  It failed because the state legislature was uninterested in granting him the powers to charge on state highways.  In 2012, a different proposal was floated by former senior NYC DOT official Sam Schwartz, essentially introducing tolls on untolled East River crossings, but reducing tolls on outer New York tolled routes, which would generate new revenue and be more equitable.

However, the whole idea of charging fell dead in 2013, with Mayoral candidates uninterested.

In 2014, the Sam Schwartz plan became known as the Move NY proposal, as a group of interested organisations backed it.   However, it didn't seem to get traction, as Mayor Bill de Blasio was lukewarm and at the time, state politicians were similarly so.

Indeed, they are all summarised well in the report discussed below, as seen here:

Previous New York congestion pricing proposals

FixNYC

In January 2018, another plan was released from the Fix NYC Advisory Panel, set up by the Governor.   Full report here (PDF).  See the bottom of this post for some thoughts on some of the "information" contained within it.

Proposed New York congestion pricing area

It recommends a series of measures in three phases.