Congestion pricing in New York City is looming on the horizon for Metro area drivers and to say that it is unpopular is an understatement.
The goal is to reduce traffic, improve air quality and raise funds for public transit. However, some drivers argue that it is an unfair burden on them, especially those who live in the outer boroughs or neighboring states. Some taxi and ride-hail drivers say that it will hurt their income and livelihood. Some critics doubt that it will generate enough revenue or have a significant impact on congestion. Some residents fear that it will divert traffic to other areas and create more pollution.
New Jersey has filed a lawsuit against the US Department of Transportation to stop New York City’s congestion pricing plan, which would charge drivers up to $23 to enter lower Manhattan starting from spring 2024.
Now a private citizen has entered the fray and is suing the MTA to stop the plan. The case is remarkable because it appears to be the first legal challenge of congestion pricing brought by people who live within the toll zone.
Elizabeth Chan, a Battery Park City holiday songwriter who has successfully sued the self-described “Queen of Christmas,” Mariah Carey, alleges in the suit that the MTA didn’t study the effects of congestion pricing on the Lower Manhattan neighborhood, which is built atop landfill between the West Side Highway and the Hudson River.
Because drivers who remain on the West Side Highway will be exempt from the tolls, Chan fears the initiative will lead to more pollution and slower ambulance response times in her neighborhood of 17,000 people. She says the tolls are a matter of life and death because her daughter suffers from seizures.
“The West Side Highway will not be tolled, and will, as a result of this exclusion, experience a sharp increase of vehicles seeking to avoid tolls. As anyone who has ever driven in this area is painfully aware — and apparently this number does not include any decision maker in the congestion planning — there is already significant traffic in the area,” she wrote in her suit.
Chan said she wrote the 26-page complaint herself, with some pro bono legal assistance. Another Battery Park City resident, Tamara Hoffman, joined her suit. Chan filed the case in Manhattan federal court the day before Thanksgiving – a marked contrast from New Jersey elected officials, including Gov. Phil Murphy, who have held press conferences announcing lawsuits against the toll program.
This may look like a case of a David-and-Goliath battle shaping up, with a private citizen going up against the behemoth MTA, but Chan is no novice to such legal skirmishes. Last year she won a lawsuit – with the help of a lawyer – against Carey over the pop star’s attempt to trademark the phrase “Queen of Christmas.” Chan also describes herself as the “Queen of Christmas.”
“We didn’t want to do a lawsuit,” she said. “It’s just if we want to protect our children and we want to protect our families, the lawsuit was the only option.”
Chan argues in her suit that the MTA and the federal government did not give proper consideration to Battery Park City, which occupies a unique position in the toll zone. The neighborhood is close to the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel and west of the West Side Highway. Chan expects a surge in traffic traveling on the West Side Highway to and from the tunnel.
