Judge denies last-ditch attempt to block congestion pricing from taking effect Sunday

NY Post ^ | 1/03/24 | Priscilla DeGregory

[Libloather]

A New Jersey federal judge Friday shot down a last-ditch attempt to stop New York City’s controversial congestion toll from taking effect Sunday.

Judge Leo Gordon clarified that his Monday ruling — finding that the toll plan didn’t sufficiently lay out a plan to mitigate the impacts the toll would have on New Jersey — would still allow the toll to start Jan. 5 at midnight.

Gordon made his explanation at a last-minute hearing in Newark federal court, where lawyers for Gov. Phil Murphy argued that the plan shouldn’t be allowed to take effect until after measures are put in place to address the environmental impacts the toll will have on Garden State communities.

If the plan did go forward without addressing the negative effects, it would cause irreversible damage in New Jersey and other local communities, while another delay wouldn’t hurt the MTA, NJ lawyers argued.

“The day they flip the switch, there will be irreparable harm … you can’t put the genie back in the bottle,” lawyer Randy Mastro argued, citing how air pollution and chronic disease will skyrocket in New Jersey.

“They are going to suffer air pollution. They are going to suffer chronic illness and that is an outrage. New Jerseyans lives are literally at stake!”

MTA CEO Janno Lieber celebrated the court’s decision at a press conference Friday evening.

“Now, after untold numbers of lawsuits and lots of fighting in the press, the time for debating for lawsuits and debating is over,” Lieber boasted.

[gitmo]

But how would that increase air pollution?

[GenXPolymath]

It’s shifting air pollution from cars that would have entered NYC to the edge communities that those cars will drive too and park in. Cars that would never have come to that community’s area in the first pplace. The upper East side is up in arms as is Brooklyn and Queen’s because 700,000+ vehicles enter and leave Manhattan every day a good number of those are going to drive right up to the edges of the congestion zone and jam pack parking spots and local streets with circling and idling vehicles that again wouldn’t have ever been there prior to the congestion charges.

It’s already expensive to enter NYC it’s $13-15 with an EZ pass a lot more if you don’t have a NY State Ez pass to go across any of the NJ side tunnels or bridges. There is no free way to enter NYC every crossing of the Hudson River all the way to Albany is tolled heavily. As is the Narrows bridge from Staten Island to Brooklyn you pay double bacause it’s $14 to get from Jersey to Staten Island then again toll across the Narrows then toll again in any of the tunnels from Brooklyn or Queen’s onto Manhattan. So no one goes that way unless you need to be in Brooklyn and want to avoid Manhattan altogether.

The accurate point is the edge communities along the Jersey side of the Hudson and in Harlem, Queen’s ,Brooklyn and the upper East side all will see huge increases in car travel to their communities with people then parking their cars and using the metro or buses to enter Manhattan south of the 60th st line.

There already is a congestion charge for all taxis,uber’s and ride for hires south of 96th st imposed by the state of New York from 2019 onwards it’s $2.75 per trip in,out of or through Manhattan south of 96st. This current charge adds to that for all other vehicles now cabs and uber’s have been charged per trip since 2019. This new charge is on top of that state charge as its a city level AND a state level charge now.