On Sunday, the governor of New Jersey, Phil Murphy, criticised the MTA’s plan for congestion pricing. He said that New York City, which is still recovering from the pandemic, shouldn’t give people “another reason not to be in Manhattan.”
The controversial programme wants to cut down on traffic in downtown Manhattan by charging drivers anywhere from $9 to $23. Murphy told radio host John Catsimatidis on his Cats Roundtable on WABC 770 AM that it would be unfair to Jersey commuters and hurt communities that are still trying to recover from the pandemic.
The two-term Democrat said that the plans to fix up the Port Authority Bus Terminal and build new tunnels under the Hudson River are moving at a snail’s pace, which is making things worse.
“It would be one thing if they were already done and New Jersey commuters had a real alternative to driving, like knowing they could hop on a bus or train and get there quickly, but that’s not the case right now,” Murphy said.
Phil Murphy went on, “I don’t want to speak for New York.” “But if we’re all already struggling to get back on our feet after the pandemic, which we all are, the last thing you want to do is give people another reason not to be in Manhattan,” he said.
If the MTA program is passed in 2019, cars that enter Manhattan below 60th Street will have to pay a fee.
It has gotten strong support from people who want to improve mass transit. They say that congestion pricing will reduce traffic jams, help the environment, and make mass transit more popular.
But people who don’t like the plan, like a group of Democrats and Republicans in Congress who want to kill it, say that the toll will hurt drivers, put off tourists, and send pollution to the outer boroughs and across the Hudson.
Josh Gottheimer, a Democrat from New Jersey, told reporters last week at a press conference that he thinks the MTA is badly run and is hoping for a bailout.
Gottheimer said, “They need money desperately to get out of the big hole they dug for themselves.”
The TomTom Traffic Index, which looks at traffic in major cities around the world, says that New York City has the most traffic jams of any city in the United States.
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