SAVE CONGESTION PRICING
Congestion pricing is NYC’s plan to reduce traffic and fund the MTA by adding a toll driving into the CBD. It will result in cleaner air, safer streets, better transit, and less traffic for drivers who need to drive. It encourages drivers to take transit or drive at off-peak hours.
Gov. Kathy Hochul CANCELED congestion pricing just 25 days before it was set to go into effect. She said that it would “create another obstacle to our economic recovery.”
Opponents of congestion pricing say that congestion pricing is expensive and hurts low and middle class New Yorkers, as well as disabled New Yorkers. Many say that they as a resident in Manhattan they should not have to pay to drive home.
However, there are discounts for low income New Yorkers, and exemptions for disabled New Yorkers. Many say that it benefits the rich and harms the poor and working class. Additionally, many say that people from Staten Island can’t take transit because it doesn’t exist.
To the argument of driving home from residents of the CBD, it encourages residents to park uptown and take transit down if they can’t or don’t want to pay the toll. It’s not ideal, but it helps create less traffic.
I think that most importantly, less traffic saves lives. Emergency vehicles in NYC are often stuck in gridlock in the moments were seconds count. Congestion pricing and less traffic allows emergency services to reach their destinations faster.
nyc fact/tip #18:
in the usa, 1 in every 38 people live in nyc and 1 in every 16.5 people live in our metro area!
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note: the metro area for this calculation was defined as follows (in order of geographical proximity):
New York County (Manhattan), Kings County (Brooklyn), Bronx County, Queens County, Richmond County (Staten Island), Nassau County, Westchester County, Hudson County, Essex County, Bergen County, Fairfield County, Middlesex County, Monmouth County, Union County, Morris County, Passaic County, Rockland County, Orange County, Suffolk County, Somerset County, Dutchess County, and Putnam County
(thanks, chatgpt!) definitions of the nyc metro area can vary, which is why i specified.
nyc fact/tip #17:
grand central madison is one of the most expensive and delayed public transit projects ever, at an estimated cost of 11.1 billion dollars (5 times over budget). it should have opened in 2009 but opened in 2023 (14 years delayed) instead due to numerous delays. the station does look fantastic, though.
it is part of the east side access project, expanding the lirr to connect penn station to grand central. this is because many commuters taking the long island railroad (lirr) are going to somewhere closer to grand central (east 42nd and park ave) than where the lirr would drop them off at penn station (west 31st and 8th ave).
grand central terminal serves the metro-north railroad (which goes north into ny state and into ct), and penn station serves lirr, nj transit, and amtrack. grand central terminal now connects to grand central madison (underneath the terminal) with the lirr.
you won’t want to miss a step down these escalators found in grand central madison.
image credit: crainsnewyork.com
nyc fact/tip #16:
let people off the train before getting on. please.
nyc fact/tip #14:
central park is the most filmed location in the world (in movies)!
it also smells like horse poop a lot of the time (depending on the area) so be warned. i saw a group of people who were very disappointed when they walked into central park to find out it smelled like that (for being such a famous park!).
nyc fact/tip #13:
mullvad vpn went all out with advertising in nyc. i’ve so far seen their ads in the subway, on buses, and billboards.
nyc fact/tip #12:
long island railroad and metro north railroad still uses conductors to manually check tickets and use hole punchers to validate fare payment. this is in contrary to other systems like in london where they use tap on/tap off.
they are supposed to get omny (nyc’s new fare collection system) on the railroads, but very little information on how that will be implemented has been shared (i think it’s very unlikely they install tap points at stations).
nyc fact/tip #11:
“i 
ny” is sort of rebranding as “we nyc”
nyc fact/tip #10:
the term “the city” is often spoken by new yorkers or those in the surrounding tri state area to refer to new york city (like it’s the only city you could be talking about). it’s also used to talk about manhattan specifically depending on the context.
nyc fact/tip #9:
mta installed some barriers to prevent people falling or being pushed onto the tracks.
they are very simple and don’t open and close, so there are some gaps. compared to other cities in the world, this is very low tech and unsafe. i guess better than nothing?
image credit: mta
nyc fact/tip #7:
will there be snow tomorrow in nyc? or will it be a scam? we’ll find out.
nyc fact/tip #6:
congestion pricing will go into effect this spring. it is the first city in the united states to implement such a toll. other cities that have tolls like this include london.
congestion pricing tolls car drivers $15 (or 22.50 if you don’t have an ez-pass) when driving into the central business district (south of 60th street to the bottom of manhattan). tolls are in effect during peak hours. the money will go to the mta to improve the system.
new jersey filed a lawsuit because of the mta’s decision to implement congestion pricing.
nyc fact/tip #5:
nyc’s 701 day streak without an inch of snow has been broken!