Take the bus and like it, plebes!

New York City has been working on a highly controversial plan to reduce traffic in Manhattan for a couple of years now. It would involve imposing very expensive tolls for anyone traveling into and out of the city. They believe that this would reduce congestion on the streets and bridges while raising funds for other priorities. The plan has been held up while federal agencies reviewed it to see if it’s even legal, but this week the city received preliminary federal approval (of course) and it looks like they may be moving forward with it. And plenty of people are not happy about this at all. (AP)

New York has received a critical federal approval for its first-in-the-nation plan to charge big tolls to drive into the most visited parts of Manhattan, part of an effort to reduce traffic, improve air quality and raise funds for the city’s public transit system.

The program could begin as soon as the spring of 2024, bringing New York City into line with places like London, Singapore, and Stockholm that have implemented similar tolling programs for highly congested business districts.

Under one of several tolling scenarios under consideration, drivers could be charged as much as $23 a day to enter Manhattan south of 60th Street, with the exact amount still to be decided by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which is overseeing the long-stalled plan.

The real-world impacts of a scheme such as this will be far different from what’s being advertised. The city claims that the tolls will reduce traffic congestion and encourage more people to use public transportation. And since the vast majority of cars are still not electric, they get to toss “carbon emissions reduction” into the mix for some additional climate change goodness.

Some of the stated goals actually would be achieved if this plan is put in place. There would be less traffic because working-class people who commute to work in the city would suddenly be paying more than $100 per week just to drive to work and back. That’s a big chunk out of a bartender’s wages. The high cost of living is one of the chief reasons cited by people who are leaving Gotham to move to Florida or other red states, along with high crime rates and other quality-of-life issues. The ones who stay and who can’t afford this toll will be forced onto the buses and subway trains, where God only knows what might happen to them.

Do you know who else might think twice about coming to Manhattan when the prices jump? Tourists. And the city’s tourism traffic is already well below normal and hasn’t recovered from the pandemic lockdowns yet. And that produces a negative impact for all of the businesses and employers in the city.

Of course, there’s one group of people who really won’t notice the change and probably like this idea. That would be all of the Wall Street traders and hedge fund managers who can likely afford to shell out an extra 23 bucks a day without breaking a sweat. They’ll be enjoying a faster, quieter commute in their chauffeured vehicles (that probably aren’t electric either). And they probably won’t even see all of the “little people” who are no longer clogging the roadways.

If New York City really wanted to solve congestion problems, they could have added more lanes to the roads and widened the bridges. Then everyone could get back and forth more easily. But instead, they decided to force the working class into the subways and allow the wealthy to travel in comfort and style. New York, New York. So nice they say it twice.