Posted on 12/01/2023 4:45:17 AM PST by Libloather
New Yorkers can only dream about the thrill of the open road as a new survey reveals they spend more of their lives stuck in traffic than drivers anywhere in the US.
**SNIP**
New York has increased its unwanted lead since last year and the findings were released just hours after New York's Traffic Mobility Review Board released its congestion pricing plan that could see drivers slapped with extra fees of up to $36.
Drivers of cars, SUVs and pickup trucks would be charged $15 a day to enter Manhattan below 60th Street.
Small trucks would be charged $24, commercial trucks $36, and motorcycles $7.50.
Taxi drivers, who largely opposed congestion pricing, will add $1.25 to their fares and ride share app drivers, like Uber and Lyft, $2.50 per ride.
'Ultimately, it is passengers – not drivers – who make the choice to add to vehicle congestion despite readily accessible public transportation to and within the Central Business District,' the Board said in their proposal.
'For these reasons, the congestion toll should be passed onto the customer, as part of the passenger fare.'
The scheme, first proposed in 2007, is due to begin in the spring of next year and is predicted to generate $1 billion for the MTA to spend on public transport.
And a study released last year projected the fee would reduce the number of cars entering Manhattan by 15 to 20 percent.
'Congestion pricing will reduce traffic in our crowded downtown, improve air quality and provide critical resources to the MTA,' said New York Governor Kathy Hochul.
But it has attracted furious opposition from taxi drivers who protested outside her office last month demanding to be exempted from the charges.
'The MTA is going to collapse the yellow cab sector unless the governor intervenes immediately,'...
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
You have a great point, with remote work options there would be no commute time along with all the reduced costs.
That sounds like me. I live 8 to 9 miles from. It is 20 minutes to work and 45 minutes home. I feel dead when I get home. By the way I don’t live in New York.
Driving through Atlanta?
I hate driving around Atlanta.
Besides, every street is “Peachtree Street”.
and that extends to Virginia now. 95 is just a nightmare, weekends /holidays make it a no go.
Hmmm, any wonder why people want to work from home?
The appeal is Federal jobs and contracting with Feds. Big money—ot attracts a lot of people.
I-95 from DC to Fredricksburg VA is a nightmare 24/, 365 days. It takes an hour to two hours to go a dozen miles while mostly at a complete stop.
When I lived in Alexandria, leaving work only one or two minutes early decreased the short commute through the Mixing Bowl and home by 15 minutes
I’m still in NY until I retire. Finger Lakes area...
21 miles to work, 25 minute trip is the norm
Seems like ever since covid and people started flocking to Florida the traffic has been horrible. Usually Florida only deals with major traffic during the winter with all the snow birds, but usually once they left in late winter early spring it was a huge difference (and relief), but now there never seems to be any difference. Feels like Los Angeles on the 405 or 101
NYC has spent millions in the last decade changing how vehicle traffic moves in Manhattan, and it has only worsened the traffic situation, with one caveat - they have added dozens of traffic police, directing traffic at major intersections, and those traffic police have been instructed to keep traffic moving and at times do so, usefully, against what the traffic lights say.
I think NYC has tried to deliberately make the vehicle traffic situation worse, as if to convince people not to drive cars in Manhattan, period.
"In my college years decades ago I found I could walk the distance between Penn Station and Grand Central in about the same time as it took a taxi to drive the distance."
How many of these "passengers", or "pedestrians", would be alive today; if they had to take "readily accessible public transportation"?
I don’t see how it could be worse than Miami or LA. Atlanta is no picnic.
That way you can’t get lost. You’re at the intersection of Peachtree and Peachtree and only a block from Peachtree Street.
are we neighbors, lol?! We don’t go anywhere between May and Sept because of the @@#$!*& beach traffic.
I’m astonished that Boston (#4) is worse than DC (#5). Probably DC has more advanced work-from-home options.
...and Atlanta didn’t make runner-up? (Fake News!)
We have a street in Charlotte that crosses itself seven times. I can be at the intersection of Queens and Queens and a quarter mile from the intersection of Queens and Queens.
The plutocrats can’t decide whether they want to order the peons to commute to the office to keep downtown commercial real estate alive or ban cars to save the planet so they can cash in on the green scam.
Either way they could not care less what the sheeple think.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.