NY.- New York received the green light from federal authorities on Monday to begin charging a toll for vehicles entering Manhattan, a controversial plan that would be the first of its kind in the United States.
The authorization from the Federal Highway Administration, advanced by several local media, will allow New York to continue with this initiative, which has been in planning for years and which could finally begin to be applied in 2024.
Now, the city’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority will be able to proceed to set the rates that will be charged and which, according to the drafts that have been circulated, could be up to $23 during rush hour and $17 during the rest of the day.
The proposal to charge a toll for vehicles accessing the busiest areas of Manhattan -below 60th Street- was already adopted in 2019 by local authorities in order to alleviate congestion on the streets, improve the quality of the air and inject money into public coffers to improve the public transport system.
The plan, however, has met with significant resistance, among others from the taxi industry and from the neighboring state of New Jersey, where many people who commute to work in the Big Apple reside every day.
New Jersey authorities have launched several initiatives to try to stop the project and have even passed a rule that would allow companies to offer subsidies if they allow their employees to work from their homes in the state.
