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After years of debate, New York state has adopted congestion pricing to deal with traffic problems in New York City. Starting in 2021, fees will be imposed on all vehicles entering a pricing zone that covers lower Manhattan, from 60th Street at the southern edge of Central Park to the southernmost tip of the island.
This approach has succeeded in cities including London, Singapore and Stockholm. For scholars like me who focus on urban issues, New York's decision is welcome news. Properly used, congestion pricing can make crowded cities safer, cleaner and easier for drivers, cyclists and pedestrians to navigate.
The details matter, including the size and timing of charges and the area that they cover. Congestion charges also raises equity issues, since rich people are best able to move closer to work or change their schedules to avoid the steepest costs.
Are congestion pricing plans the wave of the future in American cities?
(Score: 5, Interesting) by schad on Tuesday April 02 2019, @11:37PM
I'm not the AC, but cities just aren't to my taste. The things they have to offer aren't the things that I care about in life. I can appreciate them and enjoy them for a while, but after a few days they grow boring to me. But drop me in a forest and I'll be happy as a clam. Never bored in a forest. I'm happy to sit on a rock (or in a tree) for hours at a time without moving. If it's snowing too, well, that's pretty much how I picture heaven.
But I bet that most people would find my "happy place" intolerably dull. Send them to a place like Sequoia National Park and they'll come away amazed by the experience and talk about how great it was. But they won't feel any desire to go back ever again. And even if they do go to see some other national parks or forests, after a while they won't want to go to any more. "I've seen enough trees and lakes and mountains," they'll say. "I don't need to see any more." That's... not something I would ever say. But it is exactly how I feel about cities.
Different strokes, etc. Mainly I wish that people who love cities so much would stop trying to make me love them, too. I've been to probably every great city in the East. I promise that I know what I'm missing (and I don't miss it).