Well well well

Think whole road tolls you can change based on a schedule, or based on current and expected traffic. All of it is meant to either disincentiveize driving to cut down total traffic, or at least shunt it to less congested times or roads.

Aside: I 1000% don't consider individual toll lanes to be a type of congestion pricing. Those are just convenience surcharges (looking at you too TSA Pre check) and are complete elitist bullshit that hurts everyone but the city that takes in the fees.

Can you explain congestion pricing?

How about you explain how BigFish@'s comment is wrong instead. You clearly have a point to make, so do the work to make it.

I don't know where you live, but that's just not true in large swaths of America. The other options add multiple hours round trip anywhere and in many parts of the US it's not an option.

My work is currently a 20 minute drive down a freeway going 60 mph. There is no bus to take that route. There isn't even a connection, or a transfer, the only other option would be a cab.

Not true.

I haven't owned a car for most of my adult life, and things start to get really difficult in winter with snow (insufficient bus routes in a given area, and sidewalks/bike lanes covered in snow and not able to be transversed).

When job-hunting I had to exclude a lot of places because of how impossible it'd be to do the commute in winter. Given how expensive rent is, plenty of people are forced to live with relatives or live in certain cheaper areas long past when they'd prefer to leave, which means if the roof over your head is in an area without sidewalks/bike lanes/public transit, you rely hardcore on a car to get to work and back. And if you don't have that car, you basically lose your job. Maybe you can sustain it over the summer, but once winter snow kicks in you're pretty fucked the first hard snow or ice that comes through. If you're lucky, it's close enough to walk--but not everyone is lucky like that. Also, if your job has mandatory overtime and you're doing 50-60 hour weeks, walking 2-3 hours one way to work is a no-go.

I say this as someone who regularly biked/used public transit in Chicago winters. Not having a car shaped my life in ways that effectively made me poorer/deeper in poverty.

I take it you've never been outside a big city in Texas, California, Colorado, Kansas, Montana, Wyoming, Minnesota, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Et Cetera.

I'm only listing places I've been. An e-bike would just not cut it, especially if you have small children. There are places you can not go without getting on a freeway, and there is NO WAY IN HELL I'm putting a small child on the freeway or highway on a bike.

Maybe if you live somewhere it doesn’t snow

Even in contries where there's good public transport that's not really the case. My aunt lives in a town 40min from where I live, and she wakes up at 4am to go work at a factory 10mins from where she lives. There's no public transport at that hour and no, an ebike is not a viable solution for those roads.

I'm all in for having big parking spaces outside of cities so people load off their cars and then use public transport, but in the countryside that's just not viable.

A car can be used to move an entire family safely. You need 3-5 bikes to do the same far less safely including the very young, old, infirm.

Fatality rate for sedans is 2 per billion vehicle miles. Bikes are about 110.

Bear in mind that this is in the US which has bad drivers driving aggressively in environs ill suited.

Furthermore the average person commuting by car commutes 30 minutes by car the average bus rider an hour.

These are often distances too great to bike.

Yeah but all this $9 add up to millions which you can funnel into heated massage chairs on the trolley, tram, boat, bus or train. I want Netflix and free WiFi.

Can be good. I ride my bike when I can, but my area IS NOT built for it, so it actually pretty risky. Heck some normal routes for me would probably get me stopped by the cops for recklessness.

That's also very easily fixable

I get suggested to drive for 11 minutes and ALSO take a lyft if I wanted to use public transportation to get to work.

As someone who takes public transit into SF every work day. It exists. It works. It's faster than driving

As I understand it, poor and middle class people are already taking public transit. It's the rich people who are driving in New York. This is making it easier for deliveries, taxis, buses, and emergency vehicles to get through by getting all of the entitled rich people off the road.

Also, those lanes were open to everyone for 2 months before they had everything online. There was absolutely no traffic those months. Once they turned on the scam lanes, traffic was back with a vengeance... Unless you paid.

Pooping is unconstitutional.

Of all the things on Reddit, I miss remindmebot the most. They tried to kill it numerous times but it survived like a roach in radiation. On lemmy, I find an interesting question and have to set a timer for myself. This is the most first-world of problems, but I’m still moderately upset every time

Some people may be inclined to go up and over Central Park to get to the other side without paying the $9. That likely only affects uptown residents. I can’t imagine anyone driving around the park from midtown to avoid the fee.

The only legitimate concerns I’ve read are from contractors with tools and small businesses who deliver. They should be offered exceptions if walking or mass transit are unrealistic options. You’re not riding the subway with acetylene tanks or delivering fresh meat on Metro North. Other than that, I love it.

That's incredibly short sighted. How long before companies realize that they aren't paying employees enough to live in NYC or deal with the congestion tax and the company has no choice but to leave NYC altogether? Then tax revenue declines and the city is short on the budget!

If you understand that the congestion tax (and lets face it, it's a tax) goes up in years 3 and 5, you'll realize that this isn't going to get better. I commute to work in NYC every day and drive my personal vehicle probably once a month. It was never cost effective to drive into NYC. Someone who's already paying $850 for parking, $300 for bridge tolls and the cost of their car is not worried about the extra $9/day.

Oh and BTW, the first day of the congestion tax was a snowstorm so no one was driving in anyhow!

Kinda unfair tbh

is there any particular reason you’re saying that besides cynicism? I am having trouble finding specifics, but there’s a lot of reporting that the MTA is expecting to raise $15 billion from congestion tolling to fund public transportation repairs and improvements and pretty much all of the proposals for this in the past required all of the revenues to be earmarked for use by the MTA

Cars in Manhattan were already "just for the rich".
It's simply making the rich think for a moment, before taking their car to the street. Which makes the streets safer for everyone who's not rich.

Lmfao, that's the same distance as my commute to work, and I can bike that in 17-20 minutes

It's my understanding that poor people in NYC already take public transit. It's just the rich people who drive.

Besides, less traffic in NYC probably means cheaper parking, so people who have to drive will probably see their cost unchanged.

and it has an option for low income people to pay less.

You've never been poor have you. Its an extra 300 bucks taken away for no benefit, assuming they qualify for the low income benefit, and its 400 fliushed down the tubes if they dont.

Your comment presumes that everyone has access to public transit that suits their needs. Many people do not.

All those green lines aren't supposed to be an example of efficient transportation? Is that not exactly what the author is trying to convey?