Trump Administration to Consider Killing Congestion Pricing

Congestion pricing may be speeding up traffic by 30 percent in Manhattan, but the Trump administration is aiming for a full stop of the program nearly a month after it started.

President Donald Trump, who vowed to end the program as a candidate and has nominated congestion pricing nemesis Marc Molinaro to lead the U.S. Department of Transportation, is considering revoking the federal approval of the tolling program awarded under former President Joe Biden last year, The New York Times reported.

Sources told the Times that while Gov. Kathy Hochul and Trump have been in regular discussions, the White House will not be coming to an immediate decision on the matter. But to end the program — which has already survived several legal challenges — just 25 days after it started could ignite a legal battle between the state and the federal government.

Representatives from U.S. DOT and Hochul’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The potential loss of congestion pricing, which went into effect Jan. 5, drew immediate criticism from advocates who say the program has already led to decreased traffic on Manhattan streets.

“Looks like Donald Trump is thinking about bringing bumper-to-bumper traffic back to Manhattan, making New Yorkers’ commutes longer and more dangerous,” Sara Lind, co-executive director of Open Plans, said in a statement. “Importantly, he doesn’t have the authority to do it. This program has been researched and undergone multiple levels of approval and come out on the other side to do exactly what it’s supposed to: free up street space, get cars and buses moving faster, and help fund our public transit system.”

Iterations of a toll into Manhattan have come and gone over the decades, but the current program stems from the 2017 transit crisis that former Gov. Andrew Cuomo dubbed the “summer of hell.” It was passed by the New York State Legislature in 2019.

Requests for environmental approval from the first Trump administration went unreturned. However, the Biden administration gave the plan, backed and organized by a number of real estate industry leaders, the green light in 2024. 

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority spent about $500 million installing equipment to collect the tolls before its June 2024 activation date when Hochul herself abruptly paused the program, reportedly to help the Democrats win in the November election.

The GOP won back the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives, however. Regardless, Hochul let the plan move forward with a $9 toll, compared to the original $15 for average passenger vehicles, for certain parts of Manhattan starting Jan. 5.

“Congestion relief is a big success, impresses more and more people every day, and has already won a string of decisive court victories,” Riders Alliance policy director Danny Pearlstein said in a statement. “Eliminating the program would kill hundreds of thousands of infrastructure jobs and make millions of commuters late to work again.”

Molinaro’s opposition to congestion pricing goes back to his quest to unseat Hochul as governor in 2022, but he has yet to be confirmed as the next transportation secretary. Molinaro — a former Republican congressman who represented the Hudson Valley — previously called congestion pricing a “cash grab” and called for reforms for the MTA construction processes, the Gothamist reported.

Mark Hallum can be reached at mhallum@commercialobserver.com.