Assembly Democrats are meeting today to discuss their priorities for next year's legislative session, and StreetsPAC is asking New Yorkers to call their legislators and urge them to sign on to the Move NY toll reform plan.
Move NY is a powerful traffic reduction plan that appears to have serious political momentum. It would cut congestion and raise revenue for transit by putting a consistent price on driving into the Manhattan core while lowering tolls on outlying bridges.
Governor Cuomo has hinted that congestion pricing is on his list of 2018 legislative priorities, but it's not clear yet what he'll actually propose. In August, Zach Fink of State of Politics reported that Cuomo officials had been indicating to state legislators that the plan would not include tolls on the East River bridges, an imperative for reducing traffic on the city's most congested streets.
Currently, Assembly Member Robert Rodriguez's Move NY bill (A00306A) has 18 co-sponsors out of about 100 representatives in the MTA service region. (The Move NY website lists 31 supporters in the Assembly, some of whom have retired.)
The Assembly bill would set a toll to drive across the East River bridges and 60th Street, while adding a surcharge to for-hire vehicle trips that start or end in the city's street hail zone (roughly Manhattan below 96th Street). Tolls on MTA crossings farther from the city center, where congestion is less severe, would be reduced. Implementation would alleviate the city's worst traffic jams while raising $1.5 billion per year for transit capital projects across the region, with the bulk going to the MTA.
You can find out how to contact your representative on the Assembly website, and StreetsPAC has provided a sample script if you need inspiration.
