Tuesday, Jan 14

Dear Reader,

Whether or not you live in New York, or even if you do and don’t own a vehicle (like 55% of New Yorkers), you have likely nonetheless heard the screeching and wailing about Manhattan’s recently implemented congestion pricing. Congestion pricing as a general policy is pretty straightforward. You pay a fee — it varies depending on the size of your vehicle and the time you’re driving — to use certain streets. The money collected from those fees is used to improve other forms of transportation in the region. Together, the fee and the improved transportation options reduce congestion and pollution and make city streets safer and more enjoyable for all. 

At least, that is, for those who aren’t psychologically tethered to their cars.

What’s interesting about congestion pricing is that wherever it’s been implemented — London, Milan, and Stockholm, for example — it has initially faced intense opposition. Once in place, however, congestion pricing fairly quickly creates converts. Because, again, it makes streets safer, air cleaner, and lives more pleasant. (And we often forget that congestion costs cities money.)

We humans generally abhor change. And we North Americans abhor anything that gets in the way of our god-given right to drive whatever we want wherever we want. Hence, the aforementioned screeching and wailing.

But if New York City’s congestion pricing policy follows the trajectory of others around the world, we are likely to experience the lovely hush of all but a handful of critics. 

Decongestedly,

Dot