New York congestion pricing ‘an idea whose time has come’

New York Governor. Andrew M. Cuomo, who once doubted that congestion pricing would gain any traction in the state, is planning to resurrect the idea and will expend political capital to see it succeed, reports the New York Times.

The plan was raised a decade ago by then Mayor Michael Bloomberg, but it was derailed before it went to a vote.

Now, with the city’s subways in crisis, with daily delays increasingly common and its equipment in dire condition, Cuomo is working behind the scenes to draft a proposal and is using Bloomberg’s failed campaign as a lesson to improve its chances of winning the support of stakeholders, including the State Legislature.

“Congestion pricing is an idea whose time has come,” Cuomo said. “We have been going through the problems with the old plan and trying to come up with an updated and frankly better congestion pricing plan.”