New York City implemented congestion pricing at the beginning of this month. The toll covers the Central Business District in Manhattan - areas from 60th street and to the south. Passenger and small commercial vehicles pay $9 once per day that they enter the zone in peak hours (5 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekends) and $2.25 in non-peak times. Motorcycles pay less and certain bigger trucks and buses pay more. Taxis get a discounted rate per trip.
This is the first model of its kind in the U.S., though versions of it have been implemented in the last 50 years overseas, from Singapore to London.
New Yorkers are heavily divided on the issue, citing a burden on people with less money, a deterrent for businesses in the city, and the transfer of the bad traffic and pollution to poorer areas.
In a bustling metropolis like Atlanta, could something like this work? Considering that the data in New York is so preliminary, any ruling on that would be premature.
Money from congestion tolls in New York goes to fund the Metropolitan Transportation Agency, so there can be a greater investment in more efficient and environmentally friendly ways to move people.
Transportation officials in New York briefed the press with guarded optimism after the first week of the new system, which scans either license plates or E-Z Pass transponders to charge tolls.
In a press release, MTA shared that the new pricing system made for 219,000 less vehicles in that congestion zone in the first week, compared to that week a year prior, meaning traffic volume was down 7.5%.
MTA also reported that volume in the infamous tunnels into Manhattan had varying results, but there were volume decreases from 10% to 65% on these river crossings.
“The early data backs up what New Yorkers have been telling us all week – traffic is down, the streets feel safer, and buses are moving faster,” said MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber.
Safer streets for pedestrians - that is a benefit in this that should not be lost.
The decrease in traffic made for minutes of savings, on average, per bus trip, according to MTA’s release.
“When a car is able to travel faster over a bridge or through a tunnel, that motorist saves a few minutes, but when a bus is able to do the same, 50 people benefit from those time savings,” said NYC Transit President Demetrius Crichlow in the release.
MTA has not yet been able to correlate higher ridership on buses and trains with the new tolls. For one, tens of thousands of people already use the system, which is far more reliable and dense than MARTA in Atlanta.
If Georgia, the City of Atlanta, or a suburban county or city wanted to implement congestion pricing, would it be effective?
First, that would depend on a reliable alternate way to travel. MARTA is only built out in a small footprint. Sure, money from a congestion toll could help to build out MARTA, but we have seen how agonizingly slow that extra taxes money actually turns into real progress.
What Metro Atlanta’s “congestion zone” would be is also very debatable. The heart of Downtown Atlanta, particularly the surface streets, is not congested enough to warrant such a toll. I-75/85, the Downtown Connector, is a terrible stretch, but so are a host of other Atlanta freeways and roads.
If toll supporters wanted to find a uniform “perimeter” for tolling, it would probably die at the steps of governments in each county. The building of a regional transit system has seen the same fate.
Opposition to congestion pricing in greater Atlanta would likely be great. People heavily opposed Peach Pass toll lanes, but those will expand. Tax hikes of any kind, however, go over like a lead balloon in Georgia.
These auxiliary Peach Pass toll lanes are likely the closest Atlanta will get to this congestion pricing model. They create more reliable trips, but at a price.
Having to pay more for the same “product” - Atlanta traffic, in this case - would be a tough sell. And if the bus and train system is not built out to handle people abandoning their car trips, then traffic would not really be able to decrease like it has in New York.
President Donald Trump has already received complaints from New York and New Jersey officials about congestion pricing and Trump has said he will consider forcing The Big Apple to roll it back.
All of this is to say that there have been no talks of congestion pricing in Atlanta, though the initial go of it in New York has seen it go well.
Doug Turnbull has covered Atlanta traffic for over 20 years and written “Gridlock Guy” since 2017. Doug also co-hosts the “Five to Go Podcast,” a weekly deep dive on stories in motorsports. Contact him at fireballturnbull@gmail.com.
