More recently, a 2008 proposal by
then-mayor Michael Bloomberg for
a congestion zone in the Manhattan
central business district was
ultimately stymied by the New York
State legislature.
So if it’s been on the cards so long
why has it taken until now to get the
go-ahead? Larry Yermack, strategic
adviser to Cubic Transportation
Systems and a native New Yorker, has
In April this year New York state
governor Andrew Cuomo
approved a budget for the state
that included funding for
a congestion pricing program for
New York City.
Although there have been
congestion pricing schemes in place
in other major cities around the
world – most notably in London and
Singapore – the New York scheme
will be the first of its kind in the US.
The concept of congestion pricing
is not new to the city. As far back as
1933 city authorities had the idea of
charging a premium for travel into
Manhattan via a tolling plan for the
city’s bridges.
long been involved in the NYC
congestion pricing debate. In the
early 1980s he was an assistant to
NYC Mayor Ed Koch and responsible
for helping to oversee the DOT. For
him, the reason is straightforward.
“Why does anything take so
long?” he says. “Because we live in a
world of don’t tax me, tax somebody
else. The question politically was
whether you could put together a
Traffic leaving
Manhattan, where
the congestion charge
will be implemented
The MTA is currently soliciting ‘requests for proposal’
for a vendor that will design, build, operate and
maintain the tolling system and infrastructure
Chris McKniff, spokesperson, MTA
| NYC Congestion Charge
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