Tackling Inequity with Traffic

Congestion pricing, at its core, is not about about traffic, air quality, or public transportation, it’s about equity. Sure there are a multitude of benefits: from improved air quality, billions in public transit revenue, hundreds of millions in health cost savings, and millions of tons of greenhouse gas savings. But when you drill down to the very bottom, it’s a question of equity.

In NYC as a whole, only half of households own a car. Those households, on average, earn 2x to 2.5x more than non-driving households. Yet the costs of driving are levied upon everyone, even those of us that choose not to drive. Those costs include direct costs, like the upkeep and maintenance of roads (paving, traffic cops, snowplowing, etc) that is paid for via taxes and indirect costs, like poorer air quality (resulting in lung disorders like asthma), greater GHG emissions (resulting in a warming climate and rising oceans), and lost economic revenue (from your UPS delivery truck sitting in traffic).

Congestion pricing, however, is based on one simple principle: that drivers should be charged for those public costs they impose. By implementing a congestion pricing system, NYC moves a step closer towards internalizing the negative externalities from driving that for so long have been unfairly burdened by all, particularly the poor.