Tuesday’s Headlines: Congestion Continues Unabated Edition

We’re number 1 — in traffic gridlock.

New York City sits atop transportation data firm INRIX’s list of most-congested American cities for the second year in a row, with New Yorkers losing 101 hours to traffic last year by the company’s calculations.

INRIX also ranked New York as the most congested city in the world, despite a 4-percent drop in hours-lost-to-traffic in 2023 vs. 2022. Still, the city’s overall drop in traffic occurred alongside a 13-percent spike in “downtown trips,” the company said.

The city’s congestion also still exceeds it pre-pandemic traffic woes. In 2019, New Yorkers lost 91 hours on average to gridlock. Car usage and ownership in the city and region have exploded in the years since.

Of course, congestion pricing would make a substantial dent in all that congestion — to the tune of 9 percent fewer vehicle miles traveled across the region. But Gov. Hochul put the kibosh on the tolls and has no plans to otherwise address the congestion crunch.

On Sunday, reporter Sam Mellins of New York Focus asked Hochul about her plans to replace the $15 billion congestion pricing would raise for the MTA capital plan — only to be rebuffed and ejected from the venue where the governor was appearing.

State Sen. Liz Krueger (D-Manhattan) told Mellins that Hochul has yet to produce new plans “that meet the necessary goals” of the tolls the state legislature approved in 2019, including traffic reduction.

In other news:

• The MTA board met for the first time since Hochul’s congestion pricing flip. (NY1, The City)
• And the MTA confirmed congestion pricing will create a huge dent in its operating budget. (Daily News)
• Hochul’s congestion pricing reversal a “betrays” her friend, the late Dick Ravitch, the Daily News Editorial Board wrote. (Daily News)
• A CBD Tolling Program skeptic thinks the MTA’s bid to isolate Hochul will fail. (Nicole Gelinas via Substack)
• The New Yorker dove into the politics of Hochul’s abrupt reversal.
• Staten Island/Southern Brooklyn State Sen. Jessica Scarcella-Spanton griped about increased pollution from the driver’s seat of her car … (Riders Alliance via Twitter)
• … while Assembly Member David Weprin suggested the MTA let companies sponsor subway stations and bus stops to help fund its capital plan. (Dave Colon via Twitter)

In non-congestion pricing news:

• Today is primary election day in New York. Don’t forget to vote.
• An unlicensed driver fled the scene of a Queens hit-and-run. (Daily News)
• The Mayor’s charter revision commission seeks to limit City Council power. (Daily News)
• From the assignment desk: DOT is adding two more hours to its “Summer Streets” street closures, extending the program to 3 p.m. Transportation Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez will announce the change at 10:30 a.m. today at W. 125th St and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd.
• And at 1 p.m., the Council’s Transportation Committee will hold a hearing on several bills, including the bid to decriminalize “jaywalking,” which Streetsblog wrote about today. For info on the hearing, click here.