Regressive tax keeps the poor out of area with their older vehicles that pollute more than people who can afford to pay a $9 fee per day. News at 11.
The American mind truly struggles with the concept of people not owning cars
NYC congestion pricing cuts air pollution by a fifth in six months
51–60 of 211 posts
Re: NYC congestion pricing cuts air pollution by a fifth in six months
#52Regressive tax keeps the poor out of area with their older vehicles that pollute more than people who can afford to pay a $9 fee per day. News at 11.
You act like driving in NYC is free even without the congestion price. You realize how much it costs to park in Manhattan right? $50/day? And if you are coming from the Jersey side, you realize how much the toll is for the tunnel? $17-27. So yea, if you're poor, you're not driving your beater to SoHo and parking in a lot for $50 daily.
Most people driving into the city aren’t parking in Manhattan. When I was living in west Chester county, I would drive in into midtown and always find street parking near Columbia, free. I was surprised how easy it was to drive into the city because I heard lots of stories that it wasn’t. No tolls either.
Re: NYC congestion pricing cuts air pollution by a fifth in six months
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
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> Remember kids: congestion pricing is nothing but a tariff on transportation. On driving . And it actually makes driving more appealing, there’s much less traffic so you can get where you’re going much quicker. > Instead of making public transport more appealing through competition Like having multiple subway systems? NYC did that already.
This is also quantitatively correct because for two people coming in from afar you might change two trains or a bus and train and each ticket is at least 3.00$(bus/path from NJ) which is 24$ minimum both ways, with more than two it would make even more sense to take the car.
Congestion pricing brings in a toll above the 16$ you pay throu the tunnel. I think it's 18, So 34$ total?
So you are incentivized to get more than 2 people by car. Less traffic.
Re: NYC congestion pricing cuts air pollution by a fifth in six months
#54The article says "average daily peak concentrations of PM2.5 dropped by 3.05 µg/m³. For context, background pollution levels in the region typically hover around 8-9 µg/m³, making this reduction particularly significant for public health." But 8-9 was already considered a safe level: "Most studies indicate PM2.5 at or below 12 μg/m3 is considered healthy with little to no risk from exposure. If the level goes to or a…
The hidden risk of round numbers and sharp thresholds in clinical practice:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41746-025-02079-y
Smaller doses of a poison are better than less small doses. Using coarse linguistic categories to argue otherwise is an abuse of the purpose of categories as a linguistic tool.
Re: NYC congestion pricing cuts air pollution by a fifth in six months
#55The fact that tolls are now directly useful to the entire public must not be underappreciated. This is good news for everyone.
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Please don't fulminate or engage in ideological battle here. The topic is fine to discuss and disagree about, but HN is for curious conversation not indignation, and the guidelines make it clear we're trying for something better here. You've posted several ragey comments in a short space of time, and that's not the way HN is meant to be used. Please have a read of the guidelines and make an effort to observe them when participating here.
Re: NYC congestion pricing cuts air pollution by a fifth in six months
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
> sheer number of disingenuous objections This is unfair. Nobody wants to pay more for anything. And many of the objections resulted in policy adjustments that made the programme better.
Which objections lead to better policy?
Which objections were proven wrong?
Re: NYC congestion pricing cuts air pollution by a fifth in six months
#57The fact that tolls are now directly useful to the entire public must not be underappreciated. This is good news for everyone.
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its not a tariff because tariffs are taxes on imports. you arent paying a tax related to the value of the goods being brought over, and to the extent that new car buyers are importing cars, its neglible compared to what youre trying to draw equivalence to, trump's 30% or so tariffs.
instead, its a toll or a usage tax.
but also, you want the economic activity of having people in the city, not the cost of supporting their light trucks. people coming from outside of new york are very costly in terms of pollution, road maintenance, and losing real estate to parking spaces.
Re: NYC congestion pricing cuts air pollution by a fifth in six months
#58I live in Europe so it's still very much considered pedestrian-friendly, but cars and roads scale so bad. Especially with population density going through the roof in bigger cities. I wonder how it's going to look like in 50 years.
EV self-driving shuttles you can take on demand so nobody needs to keep a car
Re: NYC congestion pricing cuts air pollution by a fifth in six months
#59I live in Europe so it's still very much considered pedestrian-friendly, but cars and roads scale so bad. Especially with population density going through the roof in bigger cities. I wonder how it's going to look like in 50 years.
NYC has a better subway system than most Euro cities. Probably because NYC has the advantage of being old before cars became affordable.
For a few decades it seemed planners all over the world really had this crazy idea that everyone would just drive around for everything. Just put 10 lane highways straight through your town!
Re: NYC congestion pricing cuts air pollution by a fifth in six months
#60What did it do to GDP? (Sincerely asking)
No city has reliable data on this for a fleet of reasons. The high quality data tends to show little effect on retail foot traffic, slightly more reliable commute times, and then the wealth of health benefits. Linking this to output seems to be beyond economists for cities that have done something similar (London, Stockholm, Milan, etc)
Is this an AI assisted answer?