Whether she is evoking diner patrons or first responders, Gov. Hochul has consistently defended her decision to pause congestion pricing as one she made on behalf of “hard-working New Yorkers.”
But evidence suggests Kathy Hochul doesn't know who a “hard-working” New York commuter even is.
First, standing up for drivers in the one American region with viable, convenient transit is as weird as Donald Trump and JD Vance. The governor may be interested in the latest facts on the ground:
Roughly 1.24 million people commute into the congestion toll zone every day for work, from within the city and from the many surrounding counties outside the city.
Of these, roughly 90 percent enter on foot, by bicycle, or on transit. This 90/10 split is a landslide in politics, but not alarming enough for Gov. Hochul. (Transit riders comprise the biggest share by far, at nearly 77 percent.)
The people who drive or are driven into the congestion zone — let’s call them The 10 Percenters — are among the wealthiest and whitest people who commute into the CBD. The data firm Replica crunched the numbers for Streetsblog, and they are more shocking than Hochul might imagine:
- Roughly 3 percent of commuters drive their own cars into the CBD. Of those people, 55 percent have annual household incomes over $150,000, with a median income of $165,000 and an average income is $256,000.
- Roughly 60 percent of these drivers are white.
- Of the 4.5 percent of commuters who take cabs into the zone, 62 percent also have annual household incomes over $150,000.
On the other hand, 76.7 percent of commuters regularly contend with broken (or non-existent) elevators, 80 year-old signals, and old subway cars with broken air conditioning. Many already pay higher round-trip fares than what the congestion toll would be. Here’s how transit users break down demographically:
- Their median household incomes are $129,000 (28 percent less than drivers), and their average incomes are $190,000 (35 percent less than drivers).
- A majority makes less than $150,000, unlike with car commuters.
- More than 62 percent are people of color.
- A majority are not native English speakers.
Despite all of the above, Hochul began to stand up for The 10 Percenters starting June 5. In doing so, she defends a system that hurts drivers of all incomes — and none of this will be fixed with the alternative transit funding she claims to be “massaging” right now.
According to INRIX, New York City has managed to become the world's most congested urban area for two years in a row, surpassing what was already an ordeal before COVID, as documented on Streetfilms. So by keeping congestion pricing on pause, the gov keeps commuters away from their families in gridlock, while those who drive for their jobs lose money to congestion every minute, or fail to save lives because they can't answer 911 calls in time.
Looking more broadly, defending The 10 Percenters also undermines those who don't use cars because of the toxins they must breathe, the deafening noise they must endure, the blocked crosswalks they must navigate, and the added anxieties caused by the stress of having your lives defined by the cars around you.
The concern is niche, but the pause affects everyone.
And what of transit users?
The governor has said that a $15 toll is “just too high.” Setting aside all the data showing that drivers can afford it, let’s think about transit users — who, as we’ve already said, are generally poorer than their car-driving neighbors. Perhaps their fares are “just too high” as well?
For drivers, a $15 toll amounts to an additional $345 (assuming 23 weekday commutes) each month, not counting the toll credits many drivers would receive.
That $345 is cheaper than the cost of a monthly commuter rail and subway pass from everywhere outside the five boroughs. It’s only nominally more costly than monthly rail and subway passes inside the city ($330 with LIRR and $312 with Metro-North) — but in practice, most outer-borough residents contend with slower, beyond-hour-long commutes because $5.80 a day or $132 a month is still a lot to worry about.
Don’t those hard-working commuters deserve a break?
And what of theater-goers?
Opponents of congestion pricing, including the theater industry, say that Broadway attendees are crucial for the economy. But with an average ticket price of $161.20, a single Broadway ticket is a luxury that few working class New Yorkers could even consider.
Let's ignore for a moment that the average annual household income of the Broadway theatregoer was approximately $271,277 last year, or that 11 percent have an annual household income above $500,000. At $161.20 per ticket, a family of four would pay $644.80 just for their entry into a Broadway house. Congestion pricing adds just 2.3 percent to that bill — and that’s before dinner and gas.
When all of those factors are taken into account, the $15 toll is laughably small.
Now consider the theater-going family on transit: unlike four people in a car, four passengers each pay his or her own transit fare. So each theater fan from Yonkers wanting to see, say, “Lost in Yonkers” would pay $23.80 for an off-peak Metro-North round-trip to Grand Central plus a subway ride to the Theater District.
Multiply that by four, and suddenly the struggling family just added $95.20 to their Big Night Out — roughly $80 more than the toll charged to the family of four in the car. Of course, those who live further away pay even more.
Clearly, Gov. Hochul is confusing The 10 Percenters with the rest of us. But the more she stalls on activating the overdue tolls based on those notions, the longer the consequences continue to impact everyone.
Stop wasting time, Governor!
