Gov. Hochul’s cross-town bus experience Friday had been deliberate as an act of resistance — an indication of the dearth of visitors, scheduled for the day the feds had tried to order her to show the state’s congestion tolling system off.
As an alternative, lower than a day after President Trump’s transportation secretary unexpectedly walked the deadline again, Hochul did a victory lap proclaiming visitors down within the congestion zone with this system set to outlive a minimum of 30 extra days.
“Today’s an important day,” Hochul declared at a rally in Chelsea close to the tip of the M14 bus line.
“The cameras are staying on — they sure as hell are,” she mentioned to cheers from assembled transit advocates.
“This was not an easy journey — countless lawsuits, people going on television constantly berating us, saying it wouldn’t work,” Hochul mentioned.
“I want them to come here now and feel a very different New York City,” she added. “It is not jammed and stuck in traffic, we are moving once again.”
Barry Williams/ New York Each day Information
Congestion pricing readers welcome drivers on Park Ave. in Manhattan. (Barry Williams/ New York Each day Information)
In accordance with the newest knowledge from the MTA — which administers the toll and is the beneficiary of its income — visitors within the congestion tolling zone was down 11% final month over 2024. Site visitors on the bridge and tunnel crossings into Midtown and decrease Manhattan are touring at speeds as much as 30% quicker than final yr.
Latest polling has discovered that the toll, which expenses most motorists $9 a day to drive on floor streets within the tolling zone, is gaining help amongst metropolis residents. The toll is charged with lowering vehicular visitors whereas elevating cash for a slate of particular MTA capital tasks.
However Trump has sought to kill congestion pricing — which was adopted into state legislation in 2019, accepted by federal regulators in 2024, and went into impact in January — because the begin of his second time period.
In February, Trump’s transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, claimed he may immediately revoke a federal authorization to provoke the toll given by the Biden administration in 2024 following a prolonged environmental assessment course of.
The MTA instantly sued, claiming Duffy’s order was unconstitutional. The feds have but to reply to that swimsuit.
Duffy tried once more, demanding Hochul finish this system by March 21 — one thing the governor mentioned she wouldn’t do absent a courtroom order.
AP
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. (AP)
As that deadline loomed Thursday, Duffy walked again the deadline by tweet, saying New York now had 30 extra days to conform — and threatening to remove federal funding if Hochul didn’t flip the cameras off.
“Know that the billions of dollars the federal government sends to New York are not a blank check,” he wrote Thursday. “Continued noncompliance will not be taken lightly.”
Requested concerning the Trump regime’s use of funding as a cudgel Friday, Hochul brushed it off.
“I feel confident in the long-term viability of congestion pricing, which is a significant funding source,” she mentioned. “The threats? I think there’s always going to be threats coming out of Washington — tweets from secretaries.
“I have a direct communication line to the president,” she added. “I feel confident that we’ll find a path forward that sustains this important source of — not just revenue but a way that stimulates a quality of life and a vitality that we’ve not seen in this city for a long time.”
