Has anyone found any good videos explaining NYC congestion pricing? Most of what I’m finding are fear mongering news clips. I understand there is some subtlety to the issue and I was hoping some urbanist/bike/traffic engineering/numtot youtubers would have done an in depth review explaining whats good and whats not.
Your best bet may be to find some general congestion charge videos (ie, not NYC-specific coverage). Most of what I’ve come across is extremely sparse—offering only the facts of the suggested charges with little analysis—or absurdly car-centric outrage bait.
I’ve had to explain to far too many friends and colleagues why congestion fares are just and necessary—most have absolutely no conception of the damage (private) vehicles do to any environment, but especially a pedestrian-heavy urban space.
Sounds like you ran into a similar issue, my partner was giving me some carbrain talking points and I wanted to balance them with a researched perspecive.
I think part of the issue is that the congestion pricing plan has taken decades and as such has changed over time. A good lead to find details on the plan would be to search for videos with “Gridlock” Sam Schwartz. He has long been a name in traffic planning in NYC and a long time proponent of the plan.
However, I feel most of the issues with the plan involve people refusing change or unwilling to accept any cost. The two loudest groups I have heard are delivery trucks and the “commuters.” I believe in most cases that if your truckload of goods (in a vehicle getting single digit mpg) becomes unprofitable from a $25-36 surcharge (fee is based on size), then maybe that truck was too big. As for the “commuters,” they seem to mostly fall into two camps, the ones who pay $600+ a month for parking in the city already and feel violently attacked by the extra $3-400/mo, and the suburbanites who having uneventfully visited maybe twice in last decade describe NYC as the boogeyman yet think this is a vital issue personal to them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKmzIq5DmY0
He’s done a few videos on the congestion pricing in the past and does other really great videos on NYC as well.
I wouldn’t call that video in particular really great, though. It basically spent all of its time presenting the arguments of the anti-congestion pricing camp, while quickly brushing aside the arguments of the proponents.
I personally feel like it does present a fair argument. He presents both sides and their positive effects it has, personally I’m all for ways to make America less car centric, but I think he’s right that this is going to make life impossible for those on the margins, and those people are those who likely don’t even have a car in the first place. Why should the poor be punished to make the lives of rich people nicer. Congestion pricing should come after the subway is actually made usable, and not be a price so the rule actually applies to rich people as well.
CNBC did a piece last year.
