NYCs new $9 congestion pricing toll everything you need need to know
New York state is about to start charging drivers a new $9 toll to enter Midtown Manhattan.Gov.Kathy Hochul moved to restart the contentious congestion pricing plan, arguing it will help fund MTA upgrades and ease crowding and pollution on city streets.Hochul had abruptly paused the program just before it was set to go into effect in June with a base rate of $15 — and then relaunched with with the lower fee just before President-elect Donald Trump’s administration had an opportunity to block it.Critics argue the fist-in-the-nation toll — which was first approved by state lawmakers and then-Gov.
Andrew Cuomo in 2019 — is just a cash grab for the MTA that’ll saddle New York City drivers with yet another fee.Here’s what else you need to know: Cars will be tolled beginning at midnight on Jan.5, Hochul said.Standard passenger vehicles using an E-ZPass will be charged $9 per day for entering the tolling zone during daytime hours, defined as 5 a.m.
to 9 p.m.That base amount is set to increase to $12 in 2028.Other types of vehicles, like motorcycles and trucks, pay at different rates as follows:The toll is reduced by 75% during overnight hours, between 9 p.m.to 5 a.m., to around $2.25.Drivers without an E-ZPass will will receive a bill via mail and pay an inflated toll amount, though it wasn’t immediately clear how much.The toll zone encompasses all areas below 60th Street – effectively all of Manhattan south of Central Park.Highways going through the central business district such as the FDR Drive, West Side Highway and Battery Park underpass are exempted unless drivers exit onto city streets within the zone.The easiest way to pay the toll will be through an E-ZPass transponder.
Cameras and plate readers already installed at entry points to the central business district will detect a driver’s entry and will bill their E-ZPass account directly.Cars without an E-ZPass transponder will be tolled by being billed directly to the address on file connected t...