Traffic in Manhattan’s central business district fell by 7.5 percent last week and 273,000 fewer cars entered the borough’s central business district after the first congestion pricing fee in the US took effect on 5 January, New York City transit officials said on Monday.
The fee was designed to reduce traffic and raise billions for mass transit, with most of the revenue generated targeted to upgrade the city’s subway and bus systems.
“The early data backs up what New Yorkers have been telling us all week – traffic is down, the streets feel safer and buses are moving faster,” head of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority Janno Lieber said.
Overall travel times were 30 – 40 percent faster on inbound river crossings into Manhattan, which had the most congested traffic in the United States.
This is no surprise. Congestion charges are an efficient form of user pays which reduce congestion. I look forward to having them in NZ.
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That is an impressive time saving.
David Farrar runs Curia Market Research, a specialist opinion polling and research agency, and the popular Kiwiblog where this article was sourced. He previously worked in the Parliament for eight years, serving two National Party Prime Ministers and three Opposition Leaders.
3 comments:
If you are suggesting or supporting congestion charges here, then don't! Cities like New York have a viable and reliable public transport system. Auckland does not! We have a train system that is going to be out of action for over three months this year. Even in the previous years that it was supposed to be working, it continued to fail-signals, track, etc. Trains do not run on weekends nor on public holidays. The rumour is that it is to save staff wages.
We have a roading network that is covered in speed bumps, bus lanes that buses do not use and cycleways. However it is still more reliable than our "public transport system".
Until and unless our public transport becomes frequent, reliable and cheap, do NOT even think about congestion charges.
Congestion charges are only fair when there is a viable alternative, otherwise it is just revenue collection. Nowhere in NZ is anywhere close to having a decent public transport system.
New York has excellent alternatives that millions of people use each day. Our biggest city, Auckland is not even close to the size or density of New York and has hopeless public transport. No to congestion charges, yes to getting rid of T2/3 lanes other than on motorway entrances.
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