Something amazing happened earlier this month in New York City: a lot of traffic just disappeared.
Was this the result of a new highway bypass costing billions of dollars? Or a grand stunt by illusionist David Copperfield? No. The city put a price on driving into the most congested part of Manhattan and promptly started learning how much people actually wanted to do it.
Preliminary data show that the start of the city’s congestion charge, which levies a US$9 fee on drivers during the busiest time of day, has coincided with a substantial drop in auto traffic and a sharp rise in commuter train usage.
It’s not clear that all these car trips were replaced by transit. Some people may have opted to work from home or defer their outing. But basic economics – and basic logic – say that people will usually use less of something if it costs more.
If the trend holds, New York can become a poster-child for one of the few proven solutions to congestion. Chicago’s mayor is already musing about whether such a policy could work there. Canada’s biggest cities should follow suit.
That would take political courage in Canada, where tolling has mostly failed to take root.
In the most prominent recent example, Toronto’s effort to toll two urban highways was nixed by then-premier Kathleen Wynne, who was worried about angering suburban constituents. Her successor, Premier Doug Ford, is so opposed to tolls his government passed legislation forbidding them on provincial highways. But the benefits of tolling are worth the fight.
Congestion affects everyone. It makes life miserable and costs the economy billions of dollars. Governments want to be seen to be doing something about it, but in most places they keep reaching for the same tired non-solutions.
A century of evidence shows that new and wider roads will promptly become congested. Instead of spending billions of dollars on such projects, putting a price on driving can have a congestion-busting effect for little public cost.
It works because a lot of car trips are discretionary, but each individual trip has a small marginal cost, making driving the logical choice. Adding even a modest fee to the trip forces drivers to decide whether it is worth it to them. As New York is showing, a lot of people are willing to pay with time but not money.
For jurisdictions keen to follow in New York’s footsteps, the way the city rolled out the policy offers a road map to follow.
A successful implementation has three main pillars: have the backbone to fight off legal challengers; bring data to counter misinformation; and show how life is getting better.
The right to levy the congestion charge was challenged right up until the policy went live. Truckers sought injunctions and so did a teachers’ union. New Jersey politicians claimed their constituents were being unfairly targeted. In each case, the courts refused to intervene.
Then, with the program only one week old, the MTA, a New York transit agency, provided data showing that traffic was indeed down. The number of vehicles entering the central business district had dropped about 7.5 per cent. That might not sound like too much, but it translated into about 220,000 fewer vehicles over the course of the week. Photos of unusually empty streets circulated on social media. Meanwhile, ridership on commuter trains rose by 5 to 15 per cent.
The MTA acknowledged that its numbers were not yet definitive, but they were right to put them out. Absent the data, a war of anecdote would have raged on. And not only did the MTA show that there was less traffic, the agency showed why that mattered.
The emptier roads sped up life for those still using them. Bus trips were faster, particularly on express routes. People using bridges and tunnels to drive into the zone saved as much as eight minutes. Once in Manhattan, time spent on many key roads was markedly reduced.
Congestion charges tend to become more popular once they are in place than when they were being debated. Even some opponents in New York were quoted in the local press saying they were pleasantly surprised by how much faster they were able to get around.
The program could still fail, with more legal challenges ahead. Opponents should instead let the charge do its job. And Canadian politicians should learn from New York. It has pulled off a trick that is not magic, but still amazing.