New York
Cnn
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President Donald Trump wants to end the New York blocking policy – but the tariff program is at a strong start.
Some driver trips are getting faster. More people are walking through the shopping circles in the lower Manhattan. And legal experts say Trump does not have the power to end the blocking prices, however: New York approved the blocking prices in the law, the federal government closely reviewed and approved it, and the courts have supported it.
Price of the blockages is “really terrible” and “devastating for New York,” Trump said in an interview with the New York Post published on Saturday. “Traffic is down because people can’t come to Manhattan and will worsen alone.”
Trump said that if he decides to finish the block prices, he will be able to “kill him in Washington through the shipping department”. The White House did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.
Earlier, during the 2024 campaign, Trump called the award of congestion a “mass killer of business” and said he would end the program in his first week in office.
However, early results show that the program is reaping benefits, including less bumper-in-parakolp traffic in Central Manhattan, increased public transit use and more pedestrian activities in business circles-a potential boost for stores and restaurants.
“I think there are many people there whose minds have changed since the program went directly,” CNN Juliette Michaelson, Deputy Chief of Politics in Metropolitan Transport Authority, told CNN Juliette Michaelson. “Trump is a New Yorker and I think he understands how challenging traffic has been. This is a local solution to a local problem.”
The price of the blockages debuted on January 5 in New York City after years of debate, government reviews and delays. The program loads drivers 9 dollars a day during peak hours and $ 2.25 at night to enter Manhattan under the 60th road, known as overload aid area, with discounts for lower income drivers and exceptions for others.
The number is designed to facilitate the blockage within the most compressed circle in the United States and to encourage the use of public transit. Money is intended to fund billions of dollars in the necessary transit improvements, reduce air pollution and improve road safety.
Charging executives entering Lower Manhattan to finance mass transit is controversial, although the public transit is the main way of New Yorkers. Public transit accounts for 75% of all trips to that part of New York and 85% of passenger trips to the area.
About 1.2 million fewer vehicles entered the area in January, a 7.5% decrease from January 2024, according to MTA, which operates the tariff program. It took up to 30% less time during the momentum to cross bridges and through tunnels in low Manhattan that month. Car times on the 34th road – a main road – shortened in half.
Despite Dropoff in cars, more people visited low business areas in Manhattan.
Last month, about 36 million people visited business districts in the area, about 1.5 million people higher than January 2024. Participation in Broadway also shows that it increased 17% in January a year, despite predictions that the price of blockages would damaged broadway.
In early surveys after the program came into force, New York voters said the blockage prices led to faster trips and less traffic. A majority of voters in New York state opposes the blocking prices. But people who support it most seem to be drivers who often travel to the area, according to a morning consultation study released last week.
Sixty -six percent of people traveling to Lower Manhattan several times a week or more supporting blockage prices, according to the survey.
“The impact of the city’s relief area has been immediate and positive,” said Kathryn Wylde, Director General of Partnership for New York City, a business advocacy group, in a statement to CNN. “Blocking is a market -driven tariff, which allows people to decide to enter the city to gain immediate benefits.”
But Salil Mehta, who owns three restaurants concentrated in Southeast Asia in the area, told CNN the price of blockages is damaging small businesses and discouraging people to visit and spend money during the week.
“It could not have come at a worse time” because of the highest costs for food and restaurant operations, Mehta said. However, he said, his trip was cut from one hour to 30 minutes. “That part of it is great.”
The New York Blocking Price program is the first in the United States, but similar models have been implemented in cities across the globe for decades, including in London since 2003 and Stockholm since 2007.
In 2019, after years of calls for blocking prices in New York City, New York State adopted a law that ordered MTA to implement a tariff program. The program will generate $ 15 billion in investment to modernize New York’s 100-year public transit system.
In 2023, after a long review, the Federal Highway Administration said the price of blockages would not have a significant impact on the environment, cleaning the way to the program.
The blockage was decided to enter into force last spring with a daily number of $ 15 for drivers, but New York Governor Kathy Hichul suspended the plan endlessly before the 2024 elections. Hochul denied that the decision was politically motivated and He said the $ 15 fee was very expensive, though it had been a voice supporter of the program before stopping it.
Immediately after the November elections, Hochul rebuilt the blocking prices, but in the low number of $ 9. It came into force a few weeks before Trump took office.
Trump and Hochul have spoken twice in the last few weeks, and Hochul has defended to keep the blocking prices in the country, according to a source familiar with their conversations.
Blocking prices have survived some lawsuits seeking to block the program, including a recent New Jersey Trench effort. The United Teacher Federation and New York Truck Association have filed lawsuits against MTA, saying the program could damage the travelers entering Manhattan.
It is harder to complete the blocking prices now that it is underway and a long federal compilation found no significant impact on the environment, said Michael Gerrand, the principal of the Sabin Center of the Columbia Law School on climate change law.
“I don’t think the administration has the authority to stop the blocking prices at this point,” he said.
Trump has publicly suggested that he could “kill” the blocking prices by holding federal funds in MTA, but he has no legal authority to do it without Congress, Gerrand said. The administration can also send a letter to MTA by directing it to close the blocking prices, but this would quickly contest in court, he said.
“The courts have claimed that MTA has the legal obligation to operate the blocking prices,” he said.
John Towfighi of CNN contributed to this article.