MTA head responds to congestion pricing skeptics

Chair Janno Lieber says very few people drive into Manhattan [FORWARD TO A FRIEND]( [VIEW IN BROWSER]( [DONATE]( [WNYC Politics Brief] MTA Chair Janno Lieber responds to the congestion pricing skeptics Plus: Another pedestrian death in Queens. A handy new app for LIRR and Metro-North riders. And a bat took a nap in a subway station entrance. Sponsor Message[Ad: NYC Means Business. Click here to find options to help you shop your city.]( --------------------------------------------------------------- 🚆 --------------------------------------------------------------- [traffic in Manhattan] Mary Altaffer/AP The MTA last week announced [new details about the plan to charge drivers entering Manhattan below 60th Street]( — a program that was passed by state lawmakers in 2019 but still has yet to take effect, partly due to lengthy environmental review requirements. What we now know: Personal car drivers could be charged up to $23 at peak times, truck drivers could be charged $81, the South Bronx could see increased air pollution from vehicles that choose to take the Cross-Bronx Expressway, and every car owner and their car-owning mother thinks they should be exempt from the toll. MTA Chairman and CEO Janno Lieber, who sees the revenue from congestion pricing as a crucial funding source for improving transit service and infrastructure amid lagging ridership, [spoke with WNYC's Brian Lehrer]( yesterday about why the plan needs to go forward, and how different constituencies should (or shouldn't) expect to be accommodated. Here are highlights from his interview, which have been edited for clarity: On Rep. Nicole Malliotakis' [claim that congestion pricing is a "cash-grab"]( targeted at Staten Island drivers: We’re providing significant mass transit service — we have a Staten Island Railroad, the free Staten Island Ferry, we run a ton of express buses which are highly, highly subsidized. We redid that whole bus system to make it faster, and it is faster. I understand that she has to represent the viewpoint of some of her constituents, but the vast majority of the people coming into the central business district, including from Staten Island, are using mass transit, and we’re making the system better for the majority. There are some people who drive, and we’re hoping they’ll look at the improving mass transit system [and choose that]. On whether working class New Yorkers will be unduly harmed: More than half of New Yorkers don’t own an automobile, and obviously, it is the less advantaged people who are more dependent on mass transit. The cost of owning an automobile in New York City is like $15,000 a year. And if people are driving to the central business district, they’re probably paying $30 to $40 to park. So, generally speaking, it’s a better-off group of people who are coming to New York by automobile. We want to benefit the folks — the 90% of people who depend on mass transit and are already using mass transit. On fears about parking nightmares north of the congestion zone: We’re not going to reorganize the city around parking. That’s not who we are. I hope the reality that it doesn’t make sense to drive and pay for parking, the complexity of all that will make people choose the mass transit option. And part of that is going to be funded by the congestion pricing initiative. On how this'll affect for-hire vehicle drivers: The goal for [Uber drivers] is, we don’t want to you be stuck in traffic. So one benefit for for-hire vehicle drivers is there’ll be less traffic, so you can get from A to B and get your fares delivered to where they’re going more quickly. It is very much on our minds that we need the for-hire vehicle industry to continue to function. On the [potential harm]( to the South Bronx: We identified increased traffic on the Cross-Bronx Expressway as a potential impact, but we also said it’s an impact that needs to be mitigated. And we’ve come up with some options that minimize the impact to the South Bronx. We’re scheduled to brief Congressman Ritchie Torres in the next couple days to make sure we’re on the same page. We share his goal of minimizing any impact in the South Bronx, which has suffered environmental injustice, historically. [Listen to the entire conversation here](. --------------------------------------------------------------- Sponsor Message [Ad: NYC Means Business. Click here to find options to help you shop your city.] --------------------------------------------------------------- 🚆 --------------------------------------------------------------- Dangerous pedestrian crashes in Queens prompt calls for protections [the intersection of Myrtle and Seneca Avenues in Ridgewood, Queens, the site of a recent hit-and-run death] Catalina Gonella/Gothamist The death of [a 74-year-old man who was killed while crossing a busy street in Queens]( has renewed calls by activists and lawmakers for more pedestrian protections. A black BMW struck and killed Be Tran at the intersection of Myrtle Ave and Seneca Ave on Sunday, August 14th, in what the NYPD described as a hit-and-run. Lawmakers and advocates from the Ridgewood Tenants Union and Transportation Alternatives on Wednesday called on the city Department of Transportation to install new signals in the area to keep pedestrians safe along the heavily trafficked streets. "The city has it backwards," said State Sen. Michael Gianaris from Queens, explaining the city’s process for identifying dangerous intersections. "They study an intersection and they score it, and part of the score is how many crashes there have been, how many people have been killed and how many people have been injured. So they have to wait until that happens to get the score high enough to realize that an intersection needs protection." The crash came just days after another driver struck three pedestrians, including a 2-year-old child and its mother, after trying to evade police during a traffic stop at the nearby intersection of Wyckoff Avenue and Decatur Street, officials said. As of July 31st of this year, the city had recorded 60 pedestrian deaths and 4,563 injuries, according to the Vision Zero data tracker. [Read more here](. — [Reporting by Catalina Gonella]( --------------------------------------------------------------- 🚆 --------------------------------------------------------------- Here's What Else Is Happening The MTA is staring down a $2.5 billion budget deficit this year because ridership has been lower than expected. Consultants have revised an earlier (and more rosy) outlook, and now say ridership will likely hit 80% of pre-pandemic levels by 2026, a change the MTA attributes to office workers and suburbanites continuing to work from home. ([The New York Times]( There's a new app called TrainTime that'll allow LIRR and Metro-North riders to buy tickets, monitor train locations and see real-time seating availability. Previously, commuter rail passengers had to use multiple apps to plan trips, buy tickets and check schedules. ([Gothamist]( Jersey City Councilmember Amy DeGise is still refusing to resign after hitting a cyclist with her SUV in a hit-and-run last month. About 100 people spoke for five hours at a public forum yesterday calling for DeGise, a Democrat with deep connections within the party machine (and nine unpaid parking tickets to her name), to step down. ([Gothamist]( A subway operator died last week while working at a train yard in the Bronx. Azure Forde, a 38-year-old train operator who joined the MTA in May, was believed to have had a possible medical episode while on the job last Thursday morning. ([Gothamist]( The union representing Staten Island Ferry workers has agreed to mediate a contract dispute with the city. The ferry's captains and mates haven't received a raise since 2010 and now make far below the state average for comparable public employees in New York. ([THE CITY]( --------------------------------------------------------------- 🚆 --------------------------------------------------------------- And Finally: 'Disturbing' a sleeping bat sounds very unappealing, but still a worthwhile sign [an image of a small bat on a subway entrance staircase]( [@molly_cusick/Twitter]( --------------------------------------------------------------- 🚆 --------------------------------------------------------------- [Ad: NYC Means Business. Click here to find options to help you shop your city.]( Sponsor Message Support WNYC + Gothamist Make a donation to support local, independent journalism. Your contributions are our largest source of funding and pays for essential election coverage and more. [DONATE]( [Facebook]( [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Twitter]( [Instagram]( [Instagram]( [WNYC]( [WQXR]( [NJPR]( [GOTHAMIST]( [WNYC STUDIOS]( [THE GREENE SPACE]( Copyright © New York Public Radio. 160 Varick Street, New York, NY 10013 All rights reserved. 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