The safety is too damn high!
Gov. Hochul signed into law an expansion on New York City red light cameras on Wednesday, saying that she didn't want to waste "any more time" before improving road safety — but when it comes to the safety benefits of congestion pricing that she once championed, she said they come at too high of a cost to drivers.
The gridlock governor described the red-light camera bill as a step forward for safety. But she previously used similar language to describe the central business tolling that she halted did not allow to begin as scheduled on June 30.
"We estimate congestion pricing will reduce the volume of vehicles in Manhattan’s central business district by 17 percent," she said in May. "Fewer cars means safer streets, cleaner air and more room to maneuver for pedestrians and bicyclists."
But on Wednesday, Hochul said that the cost of reducing crashes in the central business district was just too damn high.
"My consistent position has been ... $15 to institute congestion pricing was too high at a time when everyday New Yorkers are struggling with higher costs of everything, to pay their groceries, and we cannot be tone deaf to the impact that these policies have on individuals," Hochul said in response to a question from Streetsblog reporter Kevin Duggan — who specifically mentioned the 290 people who have been injured in crashes below 60th Street since just June 30, when congestion pricing was set to start.
"That’s why there is a temporary pause is in place when we saw historically high inflation rates, the highest we’ve seen in 40-50 years, so that’s ... why we made those decisions," she added, estimating the cost to achieve all the benefits of congestion pricing to be roughly $3,800 a year for drivers, the vast majority of whom are among the region's highest wage-earners.
If congestion pricing had indeed cut traffic in the central business district by 17 percent and there was a commensurate decrease in crashes, Hochul's pause meant that 49 people were injured who would not have been.
Hochul dismissed those numbers, saying she remains "very committed to protecting individuals’ lives on the streets, central business district and beyond," before evoking the 2013 death of Sammy Cohen Eckstein, who was killed on Prospect Park West.
"Little Sammy was not killed in the central business [district]," she said, "so I’m also concerned about safety overall, what we can do to enhance safety on every street in the state of New York.”
Amy Cohen, the co-founder of Families for Safe Streets, which supported the red-light camera expansion, was not pleased by Hochul's reference to her son.
"Families for Safe Streets was happy to stand with the governor today in support of the much-needed expansion of our city's red light camera program. This is a critical measure that will save lives," she said in a statement to Streetsblog. "My family is unhappy with the invocation of Sammy's name in the defense of pausing congestion pricing. Congestion pricing has dramatically reduced deaths and injuries where it has been implemented, including in areas outside the congestion pricing zone. Families for Safe Streets strongly supports congestion pricing, and we know it's a critical tool for saving lives across the five boroughs.”
The governor also continued to lie about just how expensive New York City's proposed congestion pricing toll would be compared to the successful version in London, claiming that London's initial toll "started lower" and then "got people used to it."
As Streetsblog previously reported, London's initial congestion pricing toll was £5, which, at today's exchange rate and compensating for inflation over the 21 years since London initiated the charge, is $14.09 — or more or less what the MTA's congestion pricing toll was set to cost. The 15 quid charge today is equivalent to roughly $19.40.
As Hochul was talking to reporters in her Midtown office, the NYPD released information on yet another person killed by a driver in the congestion zone.
According to cops, on Monday at around 10:10 a.m. the driver of a Ford Transit Connect van was traveling eastbound on E. 59th Street when he struck 81-year-old Akiko Omi. The driver fled while Omi, who lived a block away, was taken to New York Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, where she died.
