New York could start charging drivers $15 to enter Manhattan as soon as mid-June, a lawyer for the state’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority told a judge at a hearing on New Jersey’s lawsuit to block the plan.
The MTA may decide on the final tolling structure by the end of March, attorney Mark Chertok told Judge Leo Gordon during a status conference Tuesday in Newark. That would lead to several further steps in the approval process. The toll, to be imposed on motorists driving into Manhattan’s central business district, would be the first of its kind in the US.
There are some income thresholds that cap fees, and the charge is lower for passenger vehicles than commercial vehicles. It’s not perfect, and I’d like to see higher fees for pickup trucks and SUVs, but there are some fee tiers.