I looked on the map. That overlooks Central Park.
If your home overlooks Central Park, I’m pretty sure you can afford a congestion charge.
Some of the most frugal, penny pitching people I know are also some of the wealthiest people I know.
Yep. I work in tech and there’s a guy who cannot stop bragging about his millionaire status and is so ridiculously cheap.
You know he’s got exactly $1,000,001 too.
A good reason to feel sorry for his kids.
Then he can walk.
You don’t get rich enough to afford such a location by paying fees that benefit others.
Dude: “I wish traffic in my area wasn’t so bad”
Genie: “Ok, people driving in your area will be financially penalized for using their car instead of public transit, therefore alleviating traffic.”
Dude: “hey wait, I want an exception made for me! I am special. I am the main character, I should be the only one driving a car!”
Genie: “That was your third wish. Goodbye.”
The congestion zone starts at 60th Street and heads south, so traveling from 61st - 79th street won’t even encounter the congestion pricing. This guy is dumb on so many levels.
EDIT: I just looked it up on a map and 61st is a one way going west towards Central Park, so if you enter 61st from Madison Ave, you’re forced to exit at 5th Ave and go south entering the zone, which I guess is this guy’s problem?. I also looked up the guy and he’s a CEO Real Estate developer, so he’s living in a multi-million dollar place right next to Central Park and can’t afford to pay $9 because his private parking spot in his building forces him to drive into the congestion pricing zone. Come on!
Another case of the big bad gubberment hurting the little guy!
Wait, it’s 9 dollars?
Oh my God. I thought it was cheap. This poor bastard, does he have a GoFundMe I can donate to? This is highway robbery, it’s going to drive him straight to the poor house or worse the public transportation system!
Maybe he’s a shady CEO scared his shit business practices will get him capped so he avoids all public transit.
Isn’t the point of the congestion fee to relieve congestion? Each person that says “this fee is stupid & I’m not paying” is one less vehicle in the area.
Sounds like a win.
That is indeed the goal, but there is still a PR battle to be had on the issue.
To my knowledge this is the first time that congestion pricing has been implemented in North-America, and how people react to this will decide whether other North-American cities are willing to take the risk and do the same thing. Over the next couple of months there will likely be a lot of opinion pieces and articles that try to make you think that the congestion pricing is a failure and should be reversed.
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I hope they don’t react the same way they did when roundabouts (rotaries/traffic circles) were introduced. Another thing that is only a problem in America and works well in many other countries.
Runabouts can be very awesome, but can anyone explain to me what the hell is going on in the UK where (in some places) they’ve added a bunch of traffic lights to their roundabouts? In my (admittedly limited) experience, they make them substantially worse, but perhaps I’m missing something?
From my understanding there are two main beneftis:
- Capacity
- Safety
Roundabouts work great, until the amount of traffic becomes to big. Then it actually starts causing problems.
At that point you can put in a regular intersection with traffic lights, which actually works better than a roundabout does in high traffic environments. But you do lose out on the traffic safety benefits, with head-on collisions becoming possible again.A roundabout with traffic lights increases the capacity of the intersection while still reducing the risk of deadly accidents.
It’s also a lot cheaper than upgrading to the next step, which is building an interchange.Signalised roundabouts are also quite prevalent in the Netherlands, and I can speak from experience that they generally work quite well if the lights are adjusted properly.
Note: I’m just some random guy, I’m by no means an expert on the matter.
This is just my understanding of the benefits of lighted roundabouts.
I was wondering if there was more to the story. Like, maybe he has a disability and NYC doesn’t have an exemption for disabilities. They do, however, have an exemption for disabilities as well as a reduced rate for low income residents. To me it sounds like this guy is just lazy.
Looking at this on Google Maps, he can get anywhere on 76th St using one bus or subway ride and a 5-10 minute walk.
Zero sympathy.
Wow, I can’t believe you’d suggest subjecting this poor man to something as horrible as being forced to use a public bus.
“Ahh, the old number 22. Clean, reliable public transportation. The chariot of the people. The ride of choice for the poor and very poor alike!”
I found Area 51!!
👽👾 🚌
A bus? With all the other peasants?
Sometimes when I ride the bus I’m uncomfortable with how my country fails the least fortunate
A developed country is not a place where the poor have cars. It’s where the rich use public transportation. (mayor of Bogotá, Enrique Peñalosa)
Colombia has really been doing great stuff in their cities
Reminds me of the time I worked at the Sears repair call center… A woman who lived on the island of Nantucket needed her washing machine repaired - Sears only went out there two days a week, and they were booked for a couple weeks, so of course she asked “what am I supposed to do until then?” I suggested a laundromat. “Have you seen the kind of people who go to the laundromat?” I said “yup, I’m there once a week.” Was quite proud of myself, usually I don’t think of the perfect response until minutes later…
Bedbug bus? :p
Imagine if we got this sort of coverage whenever someone was inconvenienced by public transit being cut, or a bike lane being blocked, or fares being raised.
But that doesn’t manufacture consent for the corporate dictatorship?
Isn’t that less than two miles away?
I suppose he could also have to travel down 79th a bit, but Manhattan is only about 2 miles wide anyway, right? So like…worst case scenario, a four mile walk.
Okay. That would be a significant walk. Probably an hour or two. But in NYC, how likely is it that you can get to your car, travel to your destination four miles away, find parking, and then walk to your destination (1) in less than an hour, and (2) for less than $9?
Get a bike, bro. Or hey, I hear New York has this fancy new doohickey called a “subway.”
It’s about a 24 minute walk or a 17 minute journey by bus
Under 10m by bike
If you catch all the lights. Urban biking can be a bit weird to time correctly.
and seemed to be able to anticipate and navigate around all pedestrians and cars in front of him like they weren’t even there
…spoken two seconds after almost hitting two pedestrians
Wild!
two seconds after almost hitting two pedestrians
Two kids that reversed direction quickly and without warning? Were they trying to get hit?
5 in an ebike.
5 minutes by motorized carriage
For me, a brisk walk is 5.2 km/h (at 8% grade, 135 strides/minute, and I’m totally sweaty after 30 minutes, it would take me about 45 to go 2 miles) because I’m short and 65. With my husband, we would take over an hour because he can only drive his wheelchair so fast before the vibrations make him lose control of his lip-joystick. Add in crappy curbcuts for another 10 minutes. I (or we) would take the bus because I’m not a privileged idiot like him, (and the subway is still not wheelchair accessible) but you should also be aware of your own privilege of youth, stride length, and health.
Exactly, that’s why we need to alleviate traffic for you guys and get you exempt from the congestion pricing because of disability.
You expect this man to mingle with the poors? What if he had to talk to someone or got bumped into? Perish the thought of this man interacting with anyone below his socioeconomic status.
Well he says it’s 18 blocks so probably a straight shot up 5th. It’s a 20 minute walk and he can go through the park if he likes.
Isn’t that less than two miles away?
I have a coworker who lives less than two kilometers from work and he complained that our workplace doesn’t have enough parking spots. There is a bus stop right in front of our building and two bus routes connecting to his neighbourhood, yet he refuses to ever take the bus
2km?
I wish my commute was that short, I’d be walking every day to work.
Are blocks shorter in new york? Where i live each block is a quarter mile
On average, a city block is 1/20 of a mile. But that can vary greatly depending on direction (N/S vs E/W) and location in the city.
https://streeteasy.com/blog/how-many-nyc-blocks-are-in-one-mile/
Blocks are a quarter mile where you are? That’s huge!
In Chicago, they are an 8th of a mile, which usually means blocks are 2x2 big buildings downtown.
I don’t live in New York. But it was my understanding that most cities with numbered streets generally adhered to 10 street numbers = one mile. 79 - 61 = 18 = 1.8 miles.
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I drove once in NYC. Never again. I’d gladly walk 3x that distance to avoid having to use a car. Or, ya know, use (gasp) public transportation.
Nobody drives in NYC! Too much traffic.
I drove in Kuala Lumpur once, traffic was crazy, super crowded, improvised lanes and bumper to bumper traffic with motorbikes going all over the place. LMAO no are you kidding? I didn’t drive, I used their awesome metro system I got a week card for cheap so I could go all around the city without even thinking about it.
I’ve driven a few times in Manhattan, but most of those times were on a Sunday - it was a different world. Ghost town is not an exaggeration. The one time it was a weekday, I was hauling a motorcycle trailer, and when I saw 2 parking spots in a row on 5th Ave, I couldn’t resist stopping for an hour to walk around. Someone actually stopped to watch me parallel park. Must’ve been a tourist, New Yorkers don’t stop for anything.
Congestion fees are a very capitalist way of solving it. This law basically exists for everyone except rich people (i,e. Those who can afford to pay fees).
All this is based on a false assumption that money has an objective value. But in reality, 1$ means different things for different classes.
Yes but the money goes 100% to public transit so it benefits the lower income public transport commuters too.
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Since when cops are public transport?
Since… I dunno but it seems all transit systems have dedicated cops in the US.
Ah, you’re new! Hello! Ga ga goo goo! Goo Goo ga ga!
There are transit cops, cops who are on the payroll of a transit system. There are also politicians who lie about where money goes, so they say “we’re investing 100% in MTA to make the system safer for you and your family” and they mean they are giving money to NYPD with some requirement they have 1 more cop at a transit terminal. As another fine example, check out states where lottery funds go to “public schools”.
I don’t understand the need to belittle anyone that lacks information or is ignorant. Were you born with all the information you have right now?
What’s that xkcd?
No, in fact I quite literally in my message acknowledged they were new and didn’t have that information. Like, the thing you’re asking is actually in my message. Sure, there’s also some belittling for flavor, but life is boring if you don’t insult people on the internet.
Sounds like you just lead a boring life if you rely on insulting strangers on the Internet for some spice.
I am new with the us system. I dont live there you see. I believe we separate cops and public transport in my country.
I mean, you are right and the fee should be proportional to wealth, but it is not gonna affect the poor people because they use the public transit. Maybe anywhere else in the US may be true that “even the homeless need/have a car” but NYC would be the exception.
According to Wikipedia “Low-income residents receive a 50 percent discount on daytime tolls after their first ten trips into the congestion zone in a calendar month”. So to some extent the system does take your concern into account.
Well it pretends to but no system like that will equalise it.
Do the same as we do with fines, based on income.
So that the congestion charge for a billionaire is also actually significant. Enough for then to reconsider using a car.
Billionaires using cars aren’t the ones causing congestion though, there just aren’t enough of them
No, but it’s tied to your income, so it doesn’t matter what you make. Poor people should have it practically for free (but still for a small nominal fee) as they’re often completely broke. Someone making an average salary should pay an average sum, a wealthy person should pay more and an ultrawealthy person should pay even more.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/06/finnish-businessman-hit-with-121000-speeding-fine
That’s one of the world’s largest speeding fines, and that guy isn’t actually even that rich. Like he’s barely in double digit millions. That’s honestly not that rich on a global scale.
I tried looking for someone with “just” ten times the estimated net worth, so someone worth 100 million. But top 25 richest hollywood actors and #25 is still 170 million. When the fines grow progressively, then those people would pay something like 4-5 million in a fine, probably.
Like when you get a fine of any sorts, unless it’s for a very basic infraction, it’s going to be day fines. So if you commit an infraction that you don’t go to prison for or get probation, you’ll have day fines. A day fine is equal to roughly your daily income. You can get 1-120 dayfines for an infraction and if you’re getting multiple infractions at the same time it’s at most 240 day fines.
The point here is that it would actually be good tax income and it would remove the effect of any regulations being cheaper to break for rich people, which is inherently very unjust.
In NYC in particular though, I have a feeling that very few low income people drive into Manhatten instead of taking transit.
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There should be congestion parking charges, too
No, better to just remove all the street parking spots.
They can do it slowly. One per day.
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I would be happy with a faster transition. Maybe one space per street per day?
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And do it during the day, without notice, and tow the cars now illegally parked.
Does NYC have minimum parking spaces in new buildings? I know other cities do, to the detriment of mass transit.
There are, they’re called parking meters.
Driving in Manhattan is for truck deliveries and taxis only.
If you try to drive a car from point to point in Manhattan, you’re an asshole.
That goes for every densely populated city. In Europe we have similar problems and still there are those SUV Assholes driving their cars in areas even delivery vehicles fear to enter. (Imagine Roads made for horse carriages… they are now one way and barely fit those dick extensions)
25 years ago, I felt safer riding a bicycle in Manhattan than I did in Boston…
Just take the 6 like 2 stops you absolute donkey
It’s hard to believe this is real. Who would try a car for a trip like that? It would be so inconvenient
I don’t it’s real? But there are definitely some annoying yuppies over there in that area.
You underestimate how car-brained Americans are. If a destination is more than a few blocks away, most people will hop in their car without a second thought.
More than a few blocks? I’ve seen people who need to take the car a quarter of a mile and even less than that. Granted, I’m talking about rural Americans where they’re used to living on rural highways applying the same logic to the small towns that support their homes, but you get the idea
Dude is complaining because even though he just lives out side of the zone he still has to pay the fee even when he travels north to 79th which is also outside zone. That area is all one way streets and if he wants to go north he has to travel south first into the zone and then he can turn around and drive to 79th. Though I have zero sympathy if you can afford to live right next to Central Park you can afford to pay the fee hundreds of times per week.
Yeah he could also walk like 1 block east and then he can go on madison.
it’s almost like that’s the point of congestion pricing
