Tomorrow, Sunday, New York launches the controversial $9 toll that drivers will have to pay to enter the center of Manhattan and that will force many travelers to use the city subway, which in recent weeks has been the scene of several violent incidents.
The price varies depending on various factors: for example, if the driver has a card called EZ Pass, during rush hour he will pay $9 and at night $2.25, while those who do not have this card will pay $13.50 at night. rush hour and $3.30 per night.
There will be video cameras located on the bridges and tunnels entering Manhattan that will record to each vehicle and will send their invoices to the owner electronically.
The governor of New York, Kathy Hochul, has indicated that the toll – which applies from 60th Street to the southern tip of the island – will improve air quality in Manhattan, will relieve your clogged avenues for several hours a day and will be used to finance the metropolitan transportation company (MTA), which manages the subway and buses.
But his arguments have not served to convince many residents of the Big Apple and other neighboring states, who doubt that the tax will be effective and they complain that they will have to take the subway more frequently.
Reluctance to use the subway
Tolls are common in other large cities around the world, such as London, which implemented a £5 tax in 2003 for vehicles passing through the city center, and which has now increased by up to 15 pounds.
Many drivers question whether the money will help the city’s subway system, which in recent weeks has been the epicenter of several violent episodes, including a man who pushed another passenger onto the tracks and a passenger who burned alive a woman who finally died.
In this sense, Parson Shwan comments in an MTA publication that, with the toll, “we will now have more people on the subway worried about someone setting them on fire on the train”: “If you want to raise MTA rates, spend more money on preventative security measures,” affects.
Jamie, a New Yorker who works in the Broadway entertainment industry, believes that the tax will not help reduce traffic, as it “will be diverted to other areas of the city,” and also emphasizes that, When proposing the measure, “residents and workers have not been taken into account” from the Big Apple.
“Broadway shows are already quite expensive and foreign audiences have not seen theater in the same amount as before 2020. This new rate will not help business,” he tells EFE.
A tax “to make politicians rich,” say New Yorkers
The figure is also different in the case of taxi drivers, who will only have to pay 75 centsand for workers at companies like Uber and Lyft, who will pay $1.50.
Still, many drivers complain about the measure: “(The government) “He just wants to make money, not decrease traffic,” Jasbir, a taxi driver who works in front of Grand Central station, one of the busiest in the city, tells EFE.
Moe agrees with him, another taxi driver who also complains that the toll is going to be “very expensive” because, every day, he enters and leaves the area in which it has been implemented “dozens of times.”
On social media, the reaction of New Yorkers is not too different from that of Jasbir and Moe: “I will be forced to incur additional costs, which means that I will have to allocate money that I had planned for other expenses to this rate),” Dariusz Su writes on Facebook.
Political opposition
The group of opponents is joined by the governor of the neighboring state of New Jersey, Phil Murphy, who has requested a federal judge temporarily blocked the measure. However, the judge ruled late Friday that the toll is completely legal.
For his part, the president-elect, Donald Trump, has also intervened in the debate and has described the toll as “the most regressive tax ever known to humanity.” He assures that he plans to revoke it when he returns to the White House on January 20.
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