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    Congestion Pricing Coalition Letter To Governor Hochul

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    robbinscm
    Lawmakers and interest groups wrote a letter to Governor Hochul, demanding that she reverse her pause on congestion pricing.

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    Congestion Pricing Coalition Letter To Governor Hochul

    Uploaded by

    robbinscm
    244 views10 pages
    Lawmakers and interest groups wrote a letter to Governor Hochul, demanding that she reverse her pause on congestion pricing.

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    Congestion Pricing Coalition Letter to Governor Hochul

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    Lawmakers and interest groups wrote a letter to Governor Hochul, demanding that she reverse her pause on congestion pricing.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    244 views10 pages

    Congestion Pricing Coalition Letter To Governor Hochul

    Uploaded by

    robbinscm
    Lawmakers and interest groups wrote a letter to Governor Hochul, demanding that she reverse her pause on congestion pricing.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 10

    June 26, 2024

    The Honorable Kathy Hochul


    Governor of New York State
    NYS State Capitol Building
    Albany, NY 12224

    Dear Governor Hochul,


    We write in strong opposition to your last-minute attempt to delay congestion pricing. As
    a coalition of almost 120 organizations and elected officials, we represent the interests of
    hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers. We state unequivocally that delaying congestion pricing
    will endanger the City’s future, the region’s future, and indeed the future of the State of New
    York. You must turn on the program on June 30th, as is the law.
    Delaying congestion pricing will negatively impact millions of New Yorkers who rely
    on public transportation every day – as well as businesses and the health and wellbeing of
    our city and region as a whole. Any delay will result in the continued overflow of congestion
    on our streets, hurting businesses, workers, and their families; worsen delays for emergency
    vehicles and response; maintain the deadly status quo of asthma, pollution, and traffic crashes;
    leave low-income New Yorkers and parents who rely on our bus system in greatest proportion
    stuck in endless traffic; hurt our ability to reach New York’s climate goals; and deprive our
    transit system of billions of dollars in essential reliability and accessibility upgrades.
    Without congestion pricing, the MTA will have to significantly shrink the current
    capital program, squeeze its operating budget by being forced to borrow money at a higher
    cost earlier – making more drastic fare increases likely, and inevitably make service cuts
    that affect the mobility of every New Yorker. It also calls into question the anticipated
    increases in service on several subway and bus lines that have been promised to start this
    summer. A decades-long legacy of underfunding and neglect left our public transit system
    hanging by a thread, resulting in the decay of the 1970s and the Summer of Hell in 2017. With a
    congestion pricing pause, we are again facing a death spiral of increased delays and outright
    failures of the system that millions of working people rely on every day. Janno Lieber, CEO and
    Chairman of the MTA, said the agency would need to prioritize “basic stuff to make sure the
    system doesn’t fall apart.”
    We are now at grave risk of not seeing improvements that are critical to delivering a
    21st-century transit system for our 21st-century region and that are standard in cities
    around the world. This includes upgraded signals to increase reliability and frequency and
    allow for increased service; new rolling stock – including hundreds of electric buses and depot
    modernization; dozens of elevator and other key accessibility projects across the MTA service
    area, including subways, the LIRR and Metro-North stations – which will cause a cascading
    effect on transit accessibility in the future; and key safety upgrades. This is unacceptable.
    Congestion pricing is more than just a funding system for the MTA – it's a critical
    policy to improve the streetscape of New York City and the public health of all New
    Yorkers. There are more drivers in New York than pre-pandemic, and a recent report by the
    Regional Plan Association and Sam Schwartz shows that traffic is the slowest on record. Traffic
    congestion has long clogged our streets, slowing private automobiles, emergency vehicles, and
    city buses to a crawl, preventing safe biking and walking, and costing workers, families, and
    businesses $20 billion each year. Every day, there are also preventable crashes in the congestion
    relief zone – with someone killed or seriously injured every 36 hours – and we know that serious
    injuries and deaths plummeted by over 25% after congestion pricing was implemented in
    London.
    Crashes are also not the only danger that congestion pricing would address. In New York
    City, PM2.5 air pollution annually results in more than 3,000 deaths, 2,000 hospital admissions
    for heart and lung problems, and roughly 6,000 emergency room visits for asthma in children and
    adults. Cars entering the zone fill the air with dangerous particulate matter that pollutes our
    bodies and sets back our fight against climate change. Delaying congestion pricing will
    negatively impact New York City for decades to come – and specifically harm New Yorkers
    with disabilities, with respiratory illnesses, who rely on the bus, who are aging in place, who
    are not white, who are parents of young children, and who are working class and middle
    class – but particularly those with lower incomes.
    Congestion pricing is an effective policy tool to fight many of the biggest issues our region is
    facing – it is also the law of New York State and must be implemented on June 30th. We
    cannot afford to wait.

    CC: Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie; NYS Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins; US
    Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer; Senator Kirsten Gillibrand; NYC Congressional
    Delegation; New York City Mayor Eric Adams; New York City Council Speaker Adrienne
    Adams; MTA leadership

    Sincerely,

    Natural Resources Defense Council

    Jobs to Move America

    New York Building Congress

    Evergreen Action

    Environmental Advocates of New York

    Southeast Bronx Community Council


    El Puente
    Center for Independence of the Disabled, New York

    Transit app
    Food and Water Watch
    Disabled In Action
    New York League of Conservation Voters
    America Walks
    Staten Island Partnership for Community Wellness
    New York Lawyers for the Public Interest
    New York Communities for Change (NYCC)
    Four Freedoms Democratic Club
    Court Square Civic Association
    The Greater Flushing Chamber of Commerce
    Democratic Socialists of America, New York - Eco Socialist Working Group
    Move NY
    Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the MTA (PCAC)
    Tri-State Transportation Campaign
    Reinvent Albany
    Riders Alliance
    Regional Plan Association
    Transportation Alternatives
    Families for Safe Streets
    Bike South Brooklyn
    StreetsPAC
    UP-STAND
    Oonee
    Bike New York
    Make Queens Safer
    Open Plans
    Center for an Urban Future
    Neighbors for A Safer Austin Street
    Brooklyn Greenway Initiative
    Eastern Queens Greenway
    KALM Living
    Brooklyn Spoke Media
    Street Plans, Inc.
    Design Trust for Public Space
    Five Boro Bike Tour
    New Yorkers for Parks
    CNU NYC
    TREEage
    Friends of Cooper Park
    HabitatMap
    Revolution Rickshaws
    It’s Easy Being Green
    Make McGuinness Safe
    Gehl Studio
    Kidical Mass NYC
    Make Brooklyn Safer
    Right of Way
    Bicycle Habitat
    UP Global
    League of American Bicyclists
    Harlem River Working Group
    Robert M Cohn Consulting Services
    play:groundNYC
    Churches United for Fair Housing (CUFFH)
    DriveRehab
    Ciclistas Latinoamericanos de New York
    Geraldine Bryant (Neighborhood Organization)
    Walkspan
    Bike Hoboken
    Buro Happold
    B.R.A.K.E.S. (Bay Ridge Advocates Keeping Everyone Safe)
    Staten Island Therapeutic Gardens
    Bait-ul Jamaal House of Community
    Everything Goes Cafe
    Makerspace NYC
    Forest Hills Green Team
    Dance Rising NYC
    Project for Public Spaces
    North Brooklyn Mutual Aid
    Hudson County Complete Streets

    Park Avenue Block Association

    WXY architecture + urban design

    OutCycling

    Sixth Street Community Center

    Kids and Car Safety

    Bay Ridge Environmental Group

    Major Taylor Iron Riders

    Bike JC

    Institute for Rational Urban Mobility

    Ridgewood Rides

    Bike North Bergen

    New York City Comptroller, Brad Lander

    United States Representative Jerrold Nadler, NY-12


    Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso

    Councilmember Crystal Hudson, District 35

    Councilmember Julie Won, District 26

    Councilmember Lincoln Restler, District 33

    Councilmember Shahana Hanif, District 39

    Councilmember Sandy Nurse, District 37


    Councilmember Alexa Aviles, District 38

    Councilmember Tiffany Caban, District 22

    Councilmember Erik Bottcher, District 3

    Assemblymember Robert Carroll, District 44

    Assemblymember Emily Gallagher, District 50


    Assemblymember Harvey Epstein, District 74

    Assemblymember Linda B. Rosenthal, District 67

    Assemblymember Marcela Mitaynes, District 51

    Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon, District 52

    Assemblymember Jessica Gonzalez-Rojas, District 34

    Assemblymember Tony Simone, District 75


    Assemblymember Souffrant Forrest, District 57

    Assemblymember Juan Ardila, District 37

    Senate Deputy Leader Michael Gianaris, District 12

    Senator Zellnor Myrie, District 20

    Senator Jabari Brisport, District 25


    Senator Julia Salazar, District 18

    Senator Andrew Gounardes, District 26

    Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal, District 47

    Senator Jessica Ramos, District 13

    Senator Gustavo Rivera, District 33

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