Congestion pricing is a huge failure if you look at its stated goals, but a brilliant ploy to rob the public by appealing to the war on cars.
Despite the mutual back-patting from Gov. Kathy Hochul and her MTA minions, traffic is no faster and the air is no cleaner since the city started tolling cars and trucks in much of Manhattan.
It has raised money, yielding the MTA about $750 million this year, almost covering the lost revenue from bus and subway fare evasion.
So if picking the pockets of working people is a win, then it’s going gangbusters.
But the warm-and-fuzzy crowd feels like the tolls are a win for the environment and so on, and feelings are what matter, right?
Hence, too, the push to redesign the city to make driving a car as expensive and inconvenient as possible.
Bicycles account for about 1% of all commuting, but romantics feel they’ll become New Yorkers’ most popular option if we’re relentless enough in expanding mostly-empty bike lanes — and protect them from traffic, sacrificing still more parking and driving space on the sacred altar of two-wheeled self-propulsion.
Meanwhile, a new City Council proposal aims to engineer “low-traffic” zones all across town by installing barriers, speed bumps and extended sidewalks to “divert” traffic.
This plan is a test run of total pedestrianization, the car haters’ dream: Banish automobiles entirely and turn Gotham’s proud avenues into dreamy walkways lined with cafes and children at play — as though we need 500 miles of pedestrian plazas.
The mayor also has grand plans for Park Avenue, with a two-way bike lane, an expanded median and the total elimination of two lanes of parking.
Busways, extended corners and “calming” chicanery are all part of the campaign against driving.
Yes, biking is a fine recreation, hooray for those healthy souls who commute that way; slower side streets are an important part of a healthy city; mass transit will always be key to making New York work — but cars empower individual people to go exactly where they choose to go.
And chasing romantic visions of a car-free America just makes you a sucker for cons like the congestion tolls.
The post How the congestion-toll scam hides behind the fantasy of a carless city appeared first on New York Post.
