Wednesday’s Headlines: Trump Posts About Congestion Pricing Edition

Congestion pricing has entered the Donald Trump social media universe.

The former president — whose ongoing trial is a blemish on safe biking and walking in Lower Manhattan — took to his Truth Social platform early Tuesday to condemn New York’s plan to toll drivers entering Manhattan’s busy Central Business District below 60th Street. Under Trump, the U.S. Department of Transportation refused to give the MTA guidance on how to advance the tolls, effectively delaying them more than three years.

In his post, Trump claimed the $15 toll on drivers amounts to a policy “where everyone has to pay a fortune for the ‘privilege’ of coming in the City.” He went on to call the tolls a “big incentive not to come.” And while he claimed congestion pricing has “been a failure everywhere it has been tried,” he also said it “would … work if a place were HOT, HOT, HOT, which New York City is not right now.”

The post — likely inspired by something the former president saw in his favorite paper the New York Post — ended with the “hope” that the tolling plan “will soon be withdrawn.”

Contrary to Trump’s claims, though, New York City isn’t doing as poorly as the media and other naysayers believe. Traffic in the five boroughs is at or above pre-pandemic levels. While total commuter trips remain down, New York has higher office occupancy post-COVID than many other American cities including Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C. and San Francisco.

The MTA provided a pithy response to Trump’s post to Michael Gold of the New York Times: “Once streets are less congested the former president’s SUV should be able to get to the courthouse faster, or he can use mass transit like millions of hardworking New Yorkers do every day,” MTA spokesman John McCarthy said in a statement accompanied by subway directions from Trump Tower to the courthouse.

Mayor Adams, meanwhile, once again rhetorically distanced himself from the tolling program he supported as a mayoral candidate in 2021. Appearing on WHCR 90.3 FM, Adams attempted to wash his hands of the effort, though he also spoke of the potential benefits of its success.

“The state made a determination that it was going to be implemented,” the mayor said. “I think that it should have been up to the city to make this determination.” Read the full transcript of the interview here.

In other news:

• Migrants believe they are being “singled out” in the NYPD’s latest farebeating crackdown. (Hell Gate)
• The driver who allegedly plowed into pro-Palestinian protests was charged with second degree assault; cops charged his victim and another demonstrator with criminal mischief. (Daily Beast)
• Several outlets — including Streetsblog — covered the mayor’s comments on potential speed limit changes in the city. (Daily News)
• A gunman allegedly shot a teen in a SoHo hotel courtyard, before fleeing via Citi Bike, earning him the tabloid nickname, “Citi Bike gunman,” though no one calls a bank robber who fled in a Chevy the “Chevy bank robber.” (Daily News)
• NY1 dove into the MTA’s growing food-and-beverage industry.
• A federal judge “appeared unconvinced” by city’s argument it doesn’t need to implement the 2014 accessible taxi agreement. (amNY)