Testimony: Public Comments on Congestion Pricing
Emerita Torres
Testimony by Emerita Torres, CSS VP of Policy, Research & Advocacy
Public Comments at the MTA’s September Board Meeting
Good morning. My name is Emerita Torres and I am the Vice President of Policy at the Community Service Society of NY (or CSS). At CSS we work with and for New Yorkers to promote economic opportunity and champion an equitable city and state. My testimony today will focus on why we support congestion pricing and our concerns regarding the recent environmental study.
CSS conducted an analysis in 2017 and again in March 2022 to study the impact of congestion pricing on outer-borough residents based on American Community Survey data. I’d like to highlight three of our main findings and I’m happy to share the report which includes all of them.
- Consistent with our 2017 analysis, only 4 percent of outer-borough residents (Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens, and Staten Island) would regularly pay the congestion charge, as the majority of outer-borough residents depend on public transportation to get to work and therefore stand to benefit from congestion pricing.
- Of the city’s outer-borough working residents in poverty, only two percent — around 5,000 residents — will be asked to pay a congestion fee as part of their daily commute.
- Finally, for every working New Yorker in poverty who will regularly face a congestion charge, 50 workers will benefit through the mandated investment of congestion revenues in transit upgrades.
Our analysis confirms that, with relatively few exceptions, congestion pricing will not be a regressive surcharge on New Yorkers in poverty, and because the funds for congestion pricing will go to necessary capital investments in the MTA, the plan will largely benefit low-income New Yorkers who regularly use mass transit. For these reasons we have been a strong and early supporter of the plan.
However, I want to underscore that we at CSS are very concerned by the environmental impact study released, particularly the increased traffic flow of trucks in the Bronx.
According to the environmental analysis – under nearly all scenarios – truck traffic on the cross Bronx expressway will increase as trucks will take the Cross Bronx to avoid the toll. While this has been characterized by many as a “small uptick,” and does not outweigh the benefits of the plan, we at CSS urge the MTA to significantly mitigate or even better, eliminated entirely, this increased traffic flow.
The Bronx has a long history of environmental injustice and harm caused by public policy and planning decisions. The borough is cross-crossed with multiple highways that cut through its neighborhoods and communities, which has exposed Bronxites for decades to high levels of air pollution and health harms – leading to high rates of asthma, lung disorders and overall poor health outcomes. In fact, the Bronx is consistently ranked as the least healthy of all counties in New York. And it is consistently under economic distress.
We urge the MTA, working with partners and communities in the Bronx, to mitigate and eventually eliminate this increase in traffic. And there are good solutions and ideas on the table already, including:
- Capping parts of the Cross Bronx expressway
- Making better use of the waterways in the Bronx, including developing marine terminals to help decongest the highways
- Regulations and incentives to decrease diesel trucks and promote electric buses and trucks.
In closing: I have 2 questions for the MTA:
What are your plans to mitigate the environmental harms the congestion plans will cause in the Bronx?
How will the funds raised by congestion pricing improved mass transit in and around the Bronx? Can you share with us the benefits Bronxites will see at their stations and stops?