2023-12-27 16:09:00
December 27, 2023
A project that began to be talked about in 2019 has crystallized in December 2023: that of shielding Manhattan from traffic to improve air quality in the city center. Starting next spring, New York will become the first city in the United States to charge a fee for vehicles that want to travel through Manhattan.
The payment will be applied to all vehicles that wish to circulate through the Central Business District (CBD) of the Big Apple. These must pay 15 dollars. Vans, depending on their capacity, will pay from 24 to 36 dollars; motorcycles, $7.50 and the fare of the famous yellow taxis will carry a surcharge of $1.25 per trip.
This measure, called “congestion pricing”, copies a model that is already effective in other cities in the world that support a high traffic density, such as London. The objective pursued is not only to improve the air quality in the city center, but also to cause a transfer in the mobility model, turning public transport into a more attractive option for daily trips compared to the private car. And if, in the process, traffic jams can be eliminated, all the better.
Although the final rate approved by the Mobility Board is 35% lower than the one proposed in the first draft, the New York authorities estimate that thanks to these new rates they will raise one billion dollars a year that they want to allocate to the promotion and financing of the public transport.
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