What New York’s congestion charge could teach the rest of America
Lighter traffic in some parts of the city is a promising start. Will it continue?
SAM SCHWARTZ, better known as Gridlock Sam, unsuccessfully tried to introduce congestion pricing to New York in the 1970s, when he was a city traffic engineer. Some 50 years later, on January 5th this year, the city finally implemented the charge—the first of its kind in America. Congested cities across the country will be taking note. It is too soon to say what effect the pricing will have on New York’s roads, but three charts below offer some clues from the first 24 hours.
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