Opinion: It’s time for Hochul to unpause congestion pricing

This week, thousands of people from across the world will travel to New York City for the annual Climate Week. This year’s theme – “it’s time” – highlights the increasing urgency of addressing the climate crisis and transitioning to renewable energy before it’s too late. But as state, national and global leaders gather to discuss ways forward, Gov. Kathy Hochul has brought us back in time by indefinitely pausing the long-awaited congestion pricing plan.

New York has long been a leader on protecting our climate. The state Department of Environmental Conservation was created on the world’s first Earth Day in 1970 and helped New York pass the nation’s first laws banning lead-based paint and combating acid rain. More recently, in 2019, the state committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by 2030. 

In 2021, lawmakers went a step further by enshrining the right to “clean air and water, and a healthful environment” into the state’s constitution. 

By becoming the first city in the country to enact congestion pricing, New York would continue to lead the way in creating practical and sustainable solutions to our climate crisis. Instead, Hochul chose to undermine the state’s environmental leadership by refusing to combat congestion, reduce vehicle pollution, improve air quality, and invest in public transit. Hochul’s action isn’t just inconsistent with the state’s goals – it’s illegal and unconstitutional, which is why we’ve chosen to sue the governor.

Why are we doing this now? The reason is simple: it’s time.

Congestion pricing isn’t some new, radical proposal. New Yorkers have advocated for this policy to solve the city’s congestion issues for over 70 years. Advocates were confident that decades of investment would finally bring this plan to fruition – so confident that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority had already spent half a billion dollars installing the cameras needed for enforcement. The governor’s eleventh-hour pause and her flimsy rationale that congestion pricing “risks too many unintended consequences” fly in the face of years of research, planning and engagement with stakeholders that got us to this point.

It’s time to stop throwing time away. New Yorkers spend 101 hours every year sitting in gridlocked traffic, more than residents of any other city in the world. We all know the frustrations of watching a stoplight go through an entire cycle without moving an inch. That road rage won’t get any better knowing that Hochul is the red light that needs to change.

It’s time to give money back to New Yorkers. Congestion pricing would shift investments back  into the city by raising approximately $1 billion annually for much-needed improvements to our public transportation infrastructure. Instead, the MTA is now looking at a $15 billion gap in its budget, having already earmarked money from the tolls for renovations that would benefit the entire city.

It’s time to make our public transit system accessible for all commuters. Without congestion pricing, over two-thirds of subway stations will keep public transit inaccessible to commuters with disabilities. The subway’s centuries-old signal system – described by the MTA as the subway’s nervous system – will remain outdated, causing commuter delays and potential safety hazards. And programs like electrifying the city’s buses and building a new line connecting Brooklyn and Queens will continue to be a fantasy. 

It’s time to create a healthier New York. Every day without congestion pricing adds an estimated 400,000 miles driven within the state, filling our air with thousands of tons of pollutants like carbon dioxide. When Stockholm, Sweden adopted congestion pricing, they reduced ambient air pollution by up to 15% and decreased acute asthma attacks in young children. What would that mean for children growing up in the most congested city in the world?

Recent data from the National Institutes of Health on local air pollution helps answer that question and reinforces why congestion pricing is a necessary policy. Air pollution in the city causes over 3,000 annual deaths, 2,000 hospital admissions for heart and lung problems and almost 6,000 emergency room visits for asthma in children and adults. Reducing this pollution by just 10% could prevent more than 300 premature deaths, not to mention hundreds of hospital and emergency room visits.

If the world’s top climate activists need examples of the inaction that’s killing our planet, they won’t need to look further than Hochul’s overcrowded roads. Soon, they will experience the anger and frustration that we’re feeling as we watch our leaders fail to meet the moment that the climate crisis demands. We know the forward-thinking, bold decision-making that must be done to make our city breathable, bolster our public transit system and reestablish New York as the nation’s foremost green state. It’s time for Hochul to finally make congestion pricing in New York City a reality.