NY Congestion Pricing Plan Survives Challenges as More Loom

-- New York’s controversial congestion pricing project cleared a pair of hurdles as two federal judges declined to put the traffic plan on hold just weeks before it is scheduled to begin. Judges’ Reasoning Liman issued his decision after hearing arguments against the plan from a variety of groups on Friday, including the Trucking Association of New York, residents of Battery Park, the United Federation of Teachers, and New Yorkers Against Congestion Pricing Tax, which describes itself as a community-based organization representing area residents concerned with the costs and environmental impacts of the program. In his opinion, Liman said that granting the injunction “would negatively harm the public interest as it would delay the environmental and economic benefits” the program was designed to provide and force the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority to “bear a sizeable financial burden.” Why New York Made a U-Turn on Congestion Pricing: QuickTake “Numerous studies have established that the congestion addressed by the tolling program itself, if unchecked by that program, will also continue to impose tremendous costs on individuals and businesses throughout the New York metropolitan region,” the judge wrote. “Those costs are economic and environmental.” At a hearing in White Plains Monday, Seibel said that she recognized that the program “is going to be more costly to some groups than to others,” and that while the decision to implement congestion pricing may be “unfair or unwise,” that is “not the same as unconstitutional.” Rockland County had alleged the tolls unfairly force residents to take mass transit despite limited options for commuters.