Back in 1942, RPA analyzed the number of vehicles entering Manhattan south of 61st Street, and found that approximately 75 percent of vehicles stopped to park or unload goods in the central business district. In order to cut down on congestion, parking facilities were recommended by transit stations in other neighborhoods such as Flushing, Queens.
As NYC watched the effects of the first week of congestion pricing unfold, I dug through my photos, RPA’s archives, and asked some of the small army of us who have worked together over the years to share their photos. Here is what I found — 20 years of advocacy summed up in about as many photos.”
This is just my story and by no means a comprehensive historical report. While there are many others not recognized here who played a far more important role than any of the advocates in the pictures, this month felt historic, and I wanted to recognize some of the advocates in a quick retrospective.
My congestion pricing history started in November 2002, when I took a job with a scrappy, pro-transit organization called the Tri-State Transportation Campaign.
I was recommended to Tri-State by John Kaehny, now at Reinvent Albany, who ran Transportation Alternatives, a group that remains a force in New York two decades later. A few days later, I was hired as a communications associate by a man named Jon Orcutt. He interviewed me in spandex after a long bike commute, but I took the job anyway.
The challenge of funding and fixing the subways and managing traffic long predates Mayor Bloomberg’s congestion pricing proposal in 2007.
The 1970s and 80s were tough on the city, and the subway system declined. After a capital construction program was established by former MTA Chairman Dick Ravitch, the system started to improve — bringing it back from the brink of collapse.
Fast forward decades later, and the MTA capital program is still vital to ensuring the system remains well maintained and reliable for riders.
RPA
Once London launched congestion pricing in 2003, advocates saw a window of opportunity for the program in New York and started developing proposals and studying how the program could work. Some of the earliest people I met pushing for congestion pricing were RPA’s Jeff Zupan and Bob Yaro.
PlanNYC’s page on congestion pricing. Despite being only a few lines of the plan, the mention of congestion pricing received a lot of attention.
The Campaign for New York’s Future was set up to push for implementation of the plan, with RPA as its fiscal sponsor. Michael O’Loughlin ran the campaign and hired Ya-Ting Liu, now the Chief Public Realm Officer for the City of New York, to help. PlaNYC was a product of the Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability under Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff. City Hall staff at the time included Rit Aggarwala, now head of NYC DEP, Amy Chester, now head of Rebuild by Design, Eddie Bautista, now head of NYC Environmental Justice Alliance and Rachel Weinberger, now RPA’s Director of Research Strategy. In 2007, Mayor Bloomberg also hired Janette Sadik Khan as Commissioner of NYC DOT, and she brought in some key livable streets advocates - Dani Simons, Jon Orcutt, Seth Solomonow, Bruce Schaller, and Andy Wiley Schwartz, among others.
Advocates didn’t win congestion pricing in 2007. It died in Albany at the hands of Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.
For the next two years, the Campaign for New York’s Future, RPA, Empire State Transportation Alliance (ESTA), and others pushed for other transit funding proposals, specifically the recommendations from the Ravitch Commission which called for implementing Harlem and East River bridge tolls along with a payroll mobility tax.
Ads supporting congestion pricing, 2007-2009
The Ravitch Commission report resulted in the payroll mobility tax being authorized in 2009, but the bridge toll proposal did not advance.
For the next several years, advocates rallied around a new proposal, spearheaded by Sam Schwartz, Charlie Komanoff and Alex Matthiessen, amongst others. Called MOVE NY, it included new tolls in Manhattan and toll reductions in the outer boroughs. The plan was launched at an event in March 2014 at Baruch College hosted by MOVE NY and RPA.
MOVE NY video
NY Post
After the population of New York City began to grow again around 2015, and the transit system buckled under the pressure, a traffic and transit “crisis” emerged. Building off the support for MOVE NY, Riders Alliance and other advocates successfully pressured Governor Cuomo to respond. He eventually endorsed congestion pricing and became its most important champion.
Governor Cuomo publicly endorsing congestion pricing in 2017 Source: Kate Slevin
The Governor’s appointments included Janno Lieber–who was hired to manage MTA’s Construction Development division in 2017, and would eventually become MTA Chairman and oversee the launching of congestion pricing in 2025–and former NYC Transit President Andy Byford. Byford developed a plan to show riders where in the subway and bus system congestion pricing money would be spent, called Fast Forward, and Lieber worked to bring project costs down.
After Governor Cuomo endorsed the proposal, many of the same groups involved in prior campaigns organized the “Fix the Subway” and “Fix Our Transit” coalitions. The coalition groups held rallies and press conferences and shared educational materials throughout the region explaining how congestion pricing would solve the transit crisis and fix traffic. Within the Governor’s office and MTA, staffers worked to develop legislation to authorize the program.
After some time in government, I was hired by Juliette Michaelson and Tom Wright to work at Regional Plan Association and dove into the congestion pricing fight once again.
Fix our Transit PSA by RPA
Released in January, 2019.
In 2017, Governor Cuomo established the Fix NYC panel to address the congestion and transit problems with key congestion pricing supporters such as Kathy Wylde of Partnership for NYC. In January 2018, the panel’s report recommended congestion pricing and a new congestion fee on for-hire vehicles.
Later that year, the for-hire fee was authorized by the State Legislature. After intense advocacy throughout the year, congestion pricing was authorized in New York State’s 2019 budget for congestion pricing to start in 2021. But the Trump Administration would delay the program, pushing the start date into the future. Advocates were not deterred and continued to organize, educate, and build support for congestion pricing.
Governor Cuomo unexpectedly resigned as governor in 2021. He was replaced by Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul. Once in office, Governor Hochul became a strong champion of congestion pricing.
Once the Biden Administration came into office in 2020, the congestion pricing program advanced and was eventually approved by the federal government in June 2023.
The victory was brief. One year later, just weeks before it was set to go live, Governor Hochul reversed course and put the program on hold indefinitely. Riders and advocates jumped into action, holding rallies and keeping the pressure on high for the next eight months.
Advocacy to “unpause the pause”
On November 14th, 2024, Governor Hochul un-paused the program. The end of 2024 saw potential stumbling blocks as litigation against the program was settled at the 11th hour. Then, finally, on January 5, 2025, the system went live, and the United States’ first congestion pricing tolling program became a reality.
The dogged efforts of transit advocates and their partners in government made this first-in-the-nation program possible. While the story of congestion pricing is still being written, this is one story of how we got to where we are today.
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