Given the price will increase over a span of several years, the revenue generated will vary depending on the toll cost.
I would take today’s figures with a huge grain of salt because of today’s unique circumstances (snow storm anticipated), but it will be great to keep track of these figures in the coming weeks.
It’d be best to take data after at least a couple of months (or at least a few weeks for short-term) because by then, people will be used to the toll, and more accurate changes in driving habits can be observed.
yes, a huge grain of salt like I said… One day is clearly not enough! Let’s keep tabs on this in the coming weeks
Day 1 and riders notice trains are more packed. That packed train equates to quite a lot of cars not on the city streets. This is also something that should be observed long-term as it may show promise.
I just hope NJ Transit increases train service and adds more trains to begin with. We also, on the NJ side, need parking decks. If they want folks to take the train, they need to work on the capacity, especially for car laden areas.
Good luck. Murphy seems to have an anti-transit crusade and is running NJ Transit into the ground. Until we get someone who is pro-transit as governor, I fear he’s just going to keep raising fares and leave service in a crappy state even with potentially increased demand due to people ditching their cars in favor of transit.
Yeah its unfortunate.
In any case, IMO, this congestion pricing is just bad timing. Like right now is not the time considering the economic state of many. Considering the MTA incompetence. They got themselves into this hole from years of incompetency. Just a bad cash grab, but IMO. Unfortunate that it will trickle down, especially when it comes to prices from goods and services when we factor in the charge that trucks get. But… I guess it’ll help. Maybe not teachers or folks in NJ but it’ll help in some respect.
It would make sense if they actually did work on improving NJ Transit. Yeah take the train, all that… but what the hell, the trains themselves suck and service is rubbish and overpriced. Not to mention all the price increase on tickets themselves, for bad service. Sucks!
One can hope that some employers compensate for this. It adds up for a lot of people.
You raise a good point which (I think) is the crux of cyclical reasoning behind most American infrastructure conversations.
In short:
Rinse and repeat for a century and you have a country with the largest economy by an order of magnitude that can’t seem to fund a single 21st century train line.
Theres also the NIMBY types who will protest a transit line that connects their neighborhood because it will bring “undesirables” (e.g lower class or minority riders) to the area or that new elevator or other additional infrastructure “ruins neighborhood character”. These opponents can use influence to stall projects (and they have) and cause cost overruns as a result or shelve a project entirely.
Now this is actually interesting. Jersey City wants to toll drivers coming in from the city in response to NY’s congestion charge. I’m all for it if it actually goes to fund NJ Transit and the state doesn’t steal the cash to pay for the NJ Turnpike.
And a major NY congestion pricing advocate got attacked. Totally not deliberate and intentional… while some crappy commenters say that its good she got attacked and that she deserved it. Typical NY Post rubbish.
Just curious if it was the northbound or southbound side of the station.
This explains some of the things NJ would of got if they settled with their lawsuit which would of benefitted the much-neglected NJ Transit:
NJ got greedy and got zero. That’s on them.
Also, even though it’s early into the start, it’s showing promise. I’m eager to see data after at least a month and then we’ll really see change.
And they’re already getting started on buying electric buses with some of the money they made:
With people ditching their cars in favor of cheaper-costing transit, ridership rose.
https://pix11.com/news/local-news/congestion-pricing/mta-reports-surge-in-subway-ridership-as-congestion-pricing-takes-effect/
Could it be? Could congestion pricing actually be working? Could the hysterical people complaining and filing lawsuits have been wrong?
I’m shocked 
but it’s just another horrible tax on good people, MTA is an uneconomical poorly managed behemoth, bus doesn’t want to stop right in front of your door …
Its not a tax. All the detractors call it that because they think driving is the only way into the city. You don’t have to pay it. How you ask? Don’t drive into the most transit dense and congested part of the city unless your job or something else requires it. Even if the money somehow vanishes for some reason, the MTA has made it clear where it is going, what they are using it for and already made purchases of new buses with some of the money made. The biggest goal is to reduce traffic which seems to be working.
Clearly its working since trains and buses are packed again.
im on your side alc11, that was just a poor attempt at irony
Before congestion pricing it usually took me an hour/hour and 15 mins to get into the city from NJ by bus, and about an hour and a half - 2 hours to get back. Now it’s a good 45 mins each way. I could get used to this
All the posts about “taxes” and unfair costs overlook the fact that there is much more common way of making people who work in one state but live in another pay money to the place where they work. Many state impost income taxes on those who work in one place (like NYC) but live somewhere else (like NJ). NY and NJ both do this. So the idea that congestion fares are somehow unique in the way states raise funds is really wrong. When I workedin NJ years ago it didn’t make any difference that the state government was often incompetent. I paid anyway. And note well that after I paid NJ I got a deduction on my NY taxes for doing so, The congestion fare actually has a certain sort of fairness about it by imposing the costs of dealing with traffic problems on those who cause them. In come taxes don’t do that and at their best hey actually serve to redirect money to those who need help by getting funds from those who don’t. Something to consider. Thanks.
