Earlier quoted context omitted.
Scary? It’s not 1978 anymore.
It's definitely not 1978 in terms of violent crime but haven't you encountered aggressive panhandlers or obviously mentally ill people? If there is something violent going on, the vast majority of passengers won't intervene (see the recent attack on an elderly woman where everyone was just filming).
Congestion Pricing in Manhattan Close to Approval
91–100 of 114 posts
Re: Congestion Pricing in Manhattan Close to Approval
#92Why not charge tourists a special subway rate (++) and finance the repairs that way, instead of creating 'exclu$ive zones' of movement.
Because that won't achieve the goal of easing congestion in downtown Manhattan by reducing the number of vehicles entering it.
Re: Congestion Pricing in Manhattan Close to Approval
#93London made the mistake of excluding Taxis from their congestion toll scheme. Now nearly all roads are jam packed with Taxis and Ubers, and no regular people drive at all anymore.
It is a very simplistic view to call it a mistake, as the the issues and policies related to the Congestion Charge have changed and evolved over the last 16 years. For example, the PHV (Private Hire Vehicle) will not be exempt from the charge from 8th April 2019. However, licensed Taxi's (Black cabs) were still deemed to be exempt from the charge, following a public consultation last year[1].
Amongst various other considerations, some of these decisions were made on the basis that the number of PHV's entering the zone has nearly doubled in the last decade, whilst some traffic has been constant.[2]
Manhattan will have to deal with similar issues, which will generally coalesce around the central tenets of easing traffic flow, improving air quality and reducing accidents.
[1]https://tfl.gov.uk/info-for/taxis-and-private-hire/phvs-and-...
[2]http://content.tfl.gov.uk/report-to-mayor-on-congestion-char...
Re: Congestion Pricing in Manhattan Close to Approval
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm okay with EV's getting a "discount" since they create less pollution. Gas vehicles can pay more than their fair share towards road repairs in exchange for the damage they're doing to the environment. If there are eventually too many EV's to generate any road repair revenue, we can re-assess then. For now, the incentive structure makes sense, and should be increased if anything.
It's not a discount, it's free. And given the price of EV's, you're not just suggesting a regressive tax, your suggesting a regressive tax where near the top of the tax bracket pays no taxes. EV's already have plenty of tax incentives. Taxes need to be both a stick and a carrot. EV's get a carrot, all drivers get a stick.
Re: Congestion Pricing in Manhattan Close to Approval
#95I'm glad to see NYC catch up to its European counterparts. This could do wonders for the air pollution inequities that exist in the city.
London did it, and it had the effect of pushing people onto buses, taxis, and private hrie vehicles. The vast majority of those use diesel. London has terrible air quality as a result. You need to give incentives for electric vehicles (especially if that's electric buses) and disincentives to diesel for it to really work.
You can't blame London's poor air on it having a congestion charge...
Re: Congestion Pricing in Manhattan Close to Approval
#96Earlier quoted context omitted.
London did it, and it had the effect of pushing people onto buses, taxis, and private hrie vehicles. The vast majority of those use diesel. London has terrible air quality as a result. You need to give incentives for electric vehicles (especially if that's electric buses) and disincentives to diesel for it to really work.
The private cars were also diesel in great numbers, and there were many more of them, carrying on average barely more than 1 person. You can't blame London's poor air on it having a congestion charge...
Re: Congestion Pricing in Manhattan Close to Approval
#97Re: Congestion Pricing in Manhattan Close to Approval
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because that won't achieve the goal of easing congestion in downtown Manhattan by reducing the number of vehicles entering it.
We don't mind the congestion in "downtown" Manhattan. The article also clearly stated the justification was raising funds to fix our daily encounter with 3rd world in subterranean Manhattan -- and I believe I can speak for the entire city of New York here -- we mind very much indeed.
You can't possibly deny that the intent of congestion charges is to reduce congestion. That's been the intent (and effect) in every other major city it's been implemented in across the world. The simple fact of the matter is that single occupancy vehicles can't possibly scale to meet all the transit demands of an urban area as dense as Manhattan, so they need to be deprioritized in favor of more scalable modes of transport. Reclaiming car lanes for dedicated bus lanes and cycle lanes would be a great first start.
Frankly, this doesn't go nearly far enough. All of the free on-street parking in this zone needs to be removed as well, with people paying the true cost of storing a vehicle on the most valuable property in the US. That'll get rid of a lot of the vehicles on the streets and we can reclaim that space for much more productive uses. Many of these vehicles only move on alternate side parking days anyway, so there's really no reason they should be here at all. Charge the $500+/month that space is actually worth and they'll be gone.
Re: Congestion Pricing in Manhattan Close to Approval
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
The difference is that the subway ticket directly finances your subway ride. It's just like how a private subway company would have financed it, so calling it a "tax" just because the train is run by a government entity is a bit weird.
Your subway fare goes into the city budget. The cost of the subway system comes out of the city budget. Your subway fare only "directly finances" the subway system as long as it's convenient to think of it that way. If there was ever a huge surplus of subway money, it would go to other projects. If there was ever a huge deficit elsewhere, money would come out of the subway system.
So to be clear, you do consider subway and bus tickets to be taxes? How about US postage stamps? Public utility bills?
Re: Congestion Pricing in Manhattan Close to Approval
#100London made the mistake of excluding Taxis from their congestion toll scheme. Now nearly all roads are jam packed with Taxis and Ubers, and no regular people drive at all anymore.
But yes, it sounds like some kind of pricing scheme should be put into place to impose increased costs on taxis/Ubers driving into the zone first. I think that'd need app support first though; as an Uber/Lyft driver, you'd need some kind of toggle saying whether you're driving into the zone that day or not -- I'm assuming that the charge is once per vehicle per day, not once per entry into the zone. If it's once per entry into the zone, then just add that onto the passenger's fare.