A new year has brought new challenges to New Yorkers, but optimism remains. On Monday, drivers experienced their first-ever weekday rush hour with congestion pricing, and locals began speaking out about how it would impact their lives in and around the Big Apple.
Over the summer, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced that she would "indefinitely" postpone New York City's congestion pricing initiative, which is aimed at improving air quality and traffic congestion. However, Hochul brought back the plan in November, and on Jan. 5, it went into effect after a bid from neighboring New Jersey to scrap the program.
In the spring, Move NY Director Alex Matthiessen, one of the key developers of the plan, detailed to The Cool Down some of the reasons why the program was controversial. In part, critics worried that low-income residents would bear the brunt of the financial burden and that fewer people would come into the city, negatively impacting businesses.
On Monday, The New York Times provided early takes from commuters on congestion pricing, and many people echoed those same fears, with the bulk of passenger cars now paying $9 per day.
"They're just making it harder to live in New York, and as a middle-class renter it's already difficult to save," Kayla Preston, a single parent who anticipates she'll need to pay congestion pricing three times per week, told the Times.
Not everyone was upset, though. Hicham Atout, a 56-year-old taxi driver, is hopeful he'll be able to get his riders from Point A to Point B more smoothly, even though he acknowledged that passengers will likely be frustrated by a fee increase.
"I think it's good, but with time, we will see," Atout told the Times.
City planners will surely monitor the outcome in the coming months, but even if the program has growing pains, the hope is it will pay off big time, leading to shorter commute times, as congestion pricing will be an added incentive to take public transportation.
"Overall, I think people are going to see and feel an improvement to their quality of life," Matthiessen told The Cool Down. "I'd say to people who are resistant to it, give it a chance. Let's see how it works. There's no reason why we can't make adjustments through the program as we go, as we learn what the impacts are where it's not working as well."
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It should also create a future with less disruptive noise pollution and toxic car exhaust. According to NYC, ground-level ozone pollution and fine particulate matter are responsible for approximately 2,400 deaths annually in the city as well as thousands of hospitalizations and emergency room visits for related health complications such as asthma and heart problems.
"I'm super excited — for my kids' lungs, for a better funded MTA, for safer streets with less cars," Peter Klecha told the Times, while wife Julia Goldsmith suggested that "feeling inconvenienced is a worthwhile sacrifice" because of the long-term environmental perks.
"Maybe it's good for business because more people take the subway and walk by me and buy something," added Aziz Khallouf, who said the toll is annoying but saw its potential benefits.
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