Crowds invading bridges and tunnels are no longer just on weekends.
Commuters to the Big Apple will have their own parking spots across the city starting this week, fearing a $9 congestion toll plan will force them to stop taking the train to save their wallets. residents told the Post.
The plan is expected to completely change the area closest to the 60th Street toll plaza, where drivers vie for free parking spaces and create nightmarish traffic jams.
“Parking is already a huge problem. We have nine hospitals in our district, many of them north of 60th Street,” said the group suing to end the program. said Upper East Sider Valerie Mason, a member of New Yorkers Against Congestion Pricing Tax.
She added that hospital staff and visitors have already eaten up much of Nabe's on-street parking.
“We are also very concerned about the [the toll] There will be a lot of traffic and more cars trying to park on the north side. [59th Street Bridge]” Mason said.
The Upper West Side and Harlem are also expected to be condemned, which is a problem when parking spaces are already at a premium.
Xavier Santiago, chairman of Manhattan Community Board 11, said East Harlem already suffers from congestion from out-of-town traffic taking up parking lots before heading south through the borough. That's because it's faster than using FDR drives, said Xavier Santiago, chairman of Manhattan Community Board 11. Congestion pricing will likely “continue to escalate.”
Suburban boroughs are also in a panic.
Communities such as Long Island City, the South Bronx in Queens, and Brooklyn's luxurious Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, and Park Slope are affected by their quality of life not only by their own drivers but also by those driving to the Big Apple. They fear they will be uprooted. New Jersey, upstate New York, Long Island, and Staten Island.
“My constituents, who don't yet have real public transportation to Manhattan, are looking forward to treating upscale, transit-rich, gentrified brownstone Brooklyn as the new park-and-ride.” New York City Council Minority Leader Joe Borelli (R-Staten) quipped. Island), when asked about the toll plan pushed by Gov. Kathy Hochul and other left-leaning Democrats.
Borelli and other critics of the plan say it will bring more air and noise pollution to suburban areas, including the Bronx and parts of Staten Island, as drivers try to avoid tolls.
Genevieve Giuliano, a professor of urban transportation at the University of Southern California's Price School of Public Policy, said motorists will spend the coming months “experimenting” with new routes and deciding whether to pay or rely on public transit. , or to pursue free transportation. parking.
“Can you imagine doing the 'car-to-subway commute' every day?” Giuliano said. “Because some days the parking lot might be empty. Other days it might not be.”
After all, many commuters want to spend as little time as possible on New York City's crime-ridden subways, warns Jim Walden, an attorney running for mayor. As a result, people are expected to drive relentlessly through suburban wards in search of precious parking spaces.
“My friends on the far left don't care about suburban boroughs at all,” said Walden, a moderate independent. “They're reducing congestion in Manhattan. [with the tolls] And there will be even more congestion elsewhere. ”
Kathryn Fried, a former state Supreme Court justice and former Lower East Side City Council member, expects the worst.
“People will try to do everything they can to avoid it.” [the toll]” Freed said.
That means toll surveillance cameras will be installed on First Avenue between East 60th and 61st Streets, potentially causing traffic disruption. Motorists planning to exit the Queensboro Bridge heading north will be charged a toll if they exit the lower level onto 1st Avenue.
But the upper exit to East 62nd Street bypasses the toll, creating a potential chokepoint for drivers trying to avoid the toll.
Meanwhile, while online entrepreneurs have long been selling license plate covers to drivers trying to avoid toll booths and traffic cameras, the state-run MTA says it will crack down on rogue riders once congestion pricing goes into effect. He warned that he plans to strengthen the situation.
There is at least one cheat code available.
A video shared on social media in April shows a hacker driving the wrong way through a one-way, one-lane parking lot with an entrance on 60th Street and bordering a toll zone, breaking a toll surveillance camera on West End Avenue. potential has been exposed. Exit at 61st Street.
The manager of Sesanta Garage, who gave his name as Sergio, said the garage was “aware of the problem” and would eventually install barricades to avoid “head-on collisions” by toll evaders. told.
“We're just waiting to see if this congestion pricing actually goes into effect,” he said last week.
The MTA declined to comment.
