The guy is a "scumbag."
New Yorkers slammed President Trump after his administration moved to cancel congestion pricing on Wednesday, less than two months into the increasingly popular and successful traffic-reduction, safety-improving and transit-boosting program.
"For him to cancel it is insane. It just shows that he doesn’t really care about New Yorkers," said Iyana Morton, a Rockaway resident, whom Streetsblog interviewed at the Canal Street NQWR station under Broadway. "I’m worried my commute is going to get way worse."
Other straphangers at the busy Downtown subway stop were unimpressed by the Commander-in-Chief's self-described monarchial withdrawal of federal approval for the $9 toll for most drivers heading into Manhattan below 60th Street, money which is supposed to fund critical upgrades and repairs to the ailing transit system.
"I don’t know what he’s thinking," said Rebecca A., a student from Staten Island. "I don’t think it’s good."
MAIN STORY: TRUMP KILLS CONGESTION PRICING
Others had New York-style words for the president's decision to nix billions in funding from the city's transportation lifeblood.
"He's a scumbag," said Phil Crotty.
Trump's Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told Gov. Hochul in a Feb. 19 letter that the White House would revoke a Biden-era approval of congestion pricing, citing "concerns about the impacts to working-class Americans."
The move threatens $16 billion in funding on which the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's capital plan depended, said a senior state politician.
"The president and the Republican members of New York's congressional delegation — I'm looking at you Mike Lawler, Nicole Malliotakis, Andrew Garbarino and Nick LaLota — just blew a $16-billion hole in the most important transit system in the nation," wrote Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie on X.
Duffy claimed in his missive that directing the revenue from drivers to mass transit was not a "fair deal" — an argument that particularly irked transit users.
"Trains are better than cars, especially in a city," said Carlo, a tourist visiting the Big Apple from Germany. "The city should be investing more in trains, not cars."
The end of the charge would also usher in a resurgance of traffic in Lower Manhattan, which one commuter worried would hamstring his bus in gridlock.
"It is going to be a lot slower," said Johan M., a student who commutes into the city from Staten Island. "I noticed when congestion pricing started it was emptier." (Even the Staten Island Advance, whose readership strongly opposed the toll, admitted recently that it is working.)
Trump has long said he wants to kill congestion pricing, and after weeks of tearing through the federal government, his latest intervention in New York City came as no surprise, said another rider.
"It tracks," said Brandon Vazquez. "I’ve come to expect it at this point. ...
It’s going to hurt everything overall."
