NYC Congestion Pricing Set to Take Effect After Years of Delays • Hacker News Board

Re: NYC Congestion Pricing Set to Take Effect After Years of Delays

#21

Post by frenchtoast8 » Tue, Jan 07, 2025, 12:16 AM UTC

RainyDayTmrw wrote: post #8

An important piece of context, which might not be immediately apparent from this discussion, is that a vast majority of people in and around New York City dislike and distrust the MTA (NYC's public transit organization) to an extreme extent[3][4]. People widely view the MTA as ineffective and its spending as suspect. The MTA has more than doubled fares in recent years[1][2], yet has nothing to show for it. So, when a…

> The new OMNY "tap to pay" system is also less generous with its weekly discounts than the previously weekly MetroCard discounts. In practice, that's a further price hike for weekly commuters, above and beyond what the single ticket list price captures.

How? The 7 Day Unlimited MetroCard is $34, which is the weekly fare cap in OMNY. Did you mean monthly? I do believe some people in certain situations will pay more with OMNY compared to a 30 Day Unlimited MetroCard due to OMNY fare caps only being counted weekly. Someone who consistently hits the $34 OMNY weekly fare cap pays $4.85 per day on average, but a 30 Day Unlimited MetroCard is $132 ($4.40 per day).

Re: NYC Congestion Pricing Set to Take Effect After Years of Delays

#22

Post by woodruffw » Tue, Jan 07, 2025, 12:49 AM UTC

RainyDayTmrw wrote: post #8

An important piece of context, which might not be immediately apparent from this discussion, is that a vast majority of people in and around New York City dislike and distrust the MTA (NYC's public transit organization) to an extreme extent[3][4]. People widely view the MTA as ineffective and its spending as suspect. The MTA has more than doubled fares in recent years[1][2], yet has nothing to show for it. So, when a…

> In particular, (from the article) the MTA claims that the money will fund the 2nd Avenue line extension. Another important piece of context is that the 2nd Avenue line extension has had a terrible track record. It's been start-and-stop for many years. Earlier phases have come in behind schedule, over cost, and covered less distance than originally promised[5][6].

They don't have to claim anything. Congestion pricing revenue is allocated, by law, to capital projects. They can't spend it on trips to Miami, at least until we annex it as the 6th borough.

It's also worth noting that the SAS's plodding pace is largely a political manner, not matter of institutionally wasteful spending: it's a massive capital project, one that has consistently been first on the chopping block during cuts over nearly a century. That means starts and stops, which are always expensive. It also runs under one of the busiest and densest stretches in Manhattan, which makes its construction a political manner: the line runs deep, includes massive station cavities, and cuts through hard Manhattan bedrock to avoid disturbing the buildings or road surface above.

Re: NYC Congestion Pricing Set to Take Effect After Years of Delays

#23

Post by asoneth » Tue, Jan 07, 2025, 3:45 PM UTC

RainyDayTmrw wrote: post #8

An important piece of context, which might not be immediately apparent from this discussion, is that a vast majority of people in and around New York City dislike and distrust the MTA (NYC's public transit organization) to an extreme extent[3][4]. People widely view the MTA as ineffective and its spending as suspect. The MTA has more than doubled fares in recent years[1][2], yet has nothing to show for it. So, when a…

> Plenty of cities, internationally, demonstrate this time again, particularly in much of Europe and East Asia, and even some domestically in the US.

I agree that NYC's transit system is significantly worse than most European and East Asian transit systems. But I'm curious what US cities you had in mind that demonstrate the value of public transit better than NYC?

In my case, I have ridden transit systems in the US that are slightly cleaner (e.g. DC), slightly cheaper (e.g. LA), feel slightly safer (e.g. Boston, Seattle, DC), but I'd consider NYC the overall best transit system in the US by a significant margin.