Queensboro Bridge (Fran Fran via Flickr)
Jan. 31, 2018 By Nathaly Pesantez
Only 3 percent of commuters in Long Island City, Sunnyside, and other neighborhoods within Assembly District 37 would face a congestion charge for entering Manhattan as proposed by Governor Cuomo, according to a new report.
The report, released Tuesday by the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, a non-profit that vouches for reducing car dependency, analyzed the 140 State Assembly and Senate districts to see how many commuters would be affected by a congestion charge for crossing into Manhattan’s central business district (CBD), or anywhere below 60th Street, as outlined by Governor Cuomo’s Fix NYC panel.
Under the Fix NYC panel’s plan, passenger cars would be charged $11.52 for entering Manhattan within the CBD on weekdays from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Commercial trucks would see a charge of $25.34 for the same time frame.
Tri-State Transportation Campaign
The report shows that 3.1 percent of commuters in Assembly District 37 would pay the congestion charge. These single-digit percentage of commuters in the district, according to the non-profit’s report, exclusively drive into Manhattan below 60th Street, and would therefore be affected by congestion charges.
The rest of the district’s population would not pay the charge, as a large percentage of commuters heavily rely on public transportation to get to the CBD, or drive north of 60th Street and to other places without charges.
Assembly District 37, represented by Assembly woman Catherine Nolan.
The report shows that 64.8 percent of Assembly District 37 commuters use public transportation to get into Manhattan, regardless if they’re entering the central business district. And just over 20 percent of commuters also drive to get into Manhattan, but they do not enter the CBD.
Overall, over half of commuters from the district don’t commute into the CBD, according to the report. For these non-CBD commuters, roughly 40 percent take the subway, while a sizable 27 percent drive alone.
For the 37.8 percent of commuters that do head into the CBD, an overwhelming 86 percent use the subway, and just 6 percent of these CBD commuters drive alone to the area.
The numbers for Assembly District 37 are consistent with one of the group’s overall findings—that in all districts surveyed, only single-digit percentages of residents commute into the potential tolled zone of Manhattan.
The Tri-State Transportation Campaign also found that drivers commuting into the CBD tend to have higher incomes than those who take public transportation, an analysis that takes a jab at a widely-heard criticism on congestion pricing that says middle-class outer borough residents will be most hurt by the measure.
In Assembly District 37, the median income of workers who commute by driving alone is $45,514. For workers using public transportation, the median income is $36,191, the report shows.
The transit advocacy group used data from the US Census 2011-2015 five year American Community Survey for the report.
“While congestion pricing by itself won’t solve every transportation challenge our city faces, it is an integral part of a larger strategy to make urban transportation more efficient, sustainable and equitable,” The Tri-State Transportation Campaign said.
Assemblywoman Catherine Nolan, who represents over 124,000 constituents in Assembly District 37, did not respond to a request for comment on the report’s findings by press time.
The proposal released by the Fix NYC panel on Jan. 19 has been the subject of discussion between Governor Cuomo and lawmakers across the state since, with deliberations expected to take months.
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20 Comments
Another dumb, uncreative idea for revenue from useless politicians. Are you also going to add a shitload more trains that will now be even more over crowded? The ones who will be hit the worst are small businesses who don’t have the option and are required to drive into the city. The worst part is they are STARTING with an astronomical toll price, imagine what it will be with annual/ semi-annual increases.
I love this plan. Pay up, smog farters!
I’m not a commuter in and out of Manhattan so not in the 3%, but do drive over the bridge often enough when the bus or subway are not feasible. And not via the real traffic-clogger –Uber. Still firmly resisting idea of tolling QB bridge. This cherry-picking data is misleading.
What happens to the parking situation when outsiders decide to try and save the $ 11 and start parking here. Pollution rises as parking takes longer to find. There are serious unanswered questions concerning this idea.
It’s not just commuting. People have lives and given they close the 7 every week or it takes hours to get into Manhattan, it’s not good to charge an extra $15 dollars (which will just get added to cab fare) to people who are already extremely inconvenienced by Cuomo’s incompetence.
After reading through the TSTC’s report linked on this article and the supporting documents they present, I can only conclude that these guys are too fixated on their crusade against motor vehicles that they are virtually blind and oblivious to other factors (e.g.: geography, infrastructure, demographics, quality of life, cost of living and other systemic issues) that will quickly undermine the purported benefits of their agenda.
Sure, they try to appease potential critics by saying “While congestion pricing by itself won’t solve every transportation challenge our city faces, it is an integral part of a larger strategy to make urban transportation more efficient, sustainable and equitable.”
But if they have seriously contemplated the full ramifications of their idea (including other viewpoints and facts of life that they’d prefer to ignore) and the track record of our city/state government, it would become painfully apparent to them that the end result they’re seeking will be anything but in reality.
Umm ok… I can conduct my own study as well, and I’m sure the #’s will be a lot higher than 3%! Cuomo must think people in district 37 are pretty stupid.
#ReleaseTheMemo
Oh yes , give more money to the idiot CEO of Mta , because we need more digital displays which most of the time just show the time or not working , and to buy more 99 cents signals that are breaking after first rain .
I used to think that the subway signals and switches only break down when it rained too.
But it seems like they’re breaking when there’s a hint of humidity or at New York City temperatures of all four seasons!
(Kicker: It’s not just the remaining century old equipment that are failing. Even those that have been recently replaced have been failing unexpectedly early in its life and often!)
thats because they are intentionally breaking down. someone is corrupt at the upper management level, and giving contracts to buddies who provide shoddy products, then sell repair services for astronomical prices.
when’d they put stormtrooper helmets on the bridge?!
That’s a lie and a half
We will all end up paying more for goods and services. The consumer will be charges extra for shipping, delivery of goods and services. So when food prices go up, thank prince andrew for that.
Thieves
I look forward to hearing from the 3% that speaks for all of Queens about how we must have cars and this is bad news.
yes it is bad news — so there – why is it okay for Mr. JVB to drive over the bridge with his car –
What are you even talking about
It is bad news. You are just too stupid to know it. Why in heaven’s name anyone would put any credence in a survey done by a an outfit that exists in order to reduce the number of cars on the road is beyond me. Who paid for the survey? And why, Sunnyside Post, didn’t you find that out? I know propaganda when I see it. But keep those newcomers moving in. They are as gullible as they come. No only will they buy this crap, they attack people who don’t. True believers are the worst.
It says in the article that the group used data collected by the US Census via the American Community Survey. As it is publicly funded and collected data, I’m sure you can get hold of it yourself and run the numbers to see if they’re really lying or massaging the stats.
Eventhough the numbers from the census, they are fairly in accurate. For there isn’t a box to say you use both trains and cars depending on the day, its either one or the other. They have me down as subway eventhough I can and have drove into the city. The area in near Maspeth in there is mostly industrial and wouldn’t have been counted under the census. The new LIC highrises house allot of UN workers who don’t drive and may not be eligible for NYS drivers license. And the big one is Astoria and other close residential areas are just outside the border, but are within ten minutes of the Queens Bridge. If those numbers were included they would go up.