Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2023.Major nonprofits and corporations have lobbied city and state officials for months about congestion pricing ahead of a Monday meeting of an MTA panel that will consider tolling structures and exemptions for the landmark program.
“The more people who don't pay, the higher the tolls will be for everyone else. It is in the best interest of the driving and riding public that the MTA stay above the fray, and not give outsized attention to well-financed interests,” Fauss said. When federal officials signed off on the MTA’s program, they required the MTA to only charge taxis and for-hire vehicles once a day.
Disclosures also show big players like Lyft, Uber and UPS also targeted city and state officials in their lobbying efforts on the incoming tolls in July and August.Uber spokesperson Josh Gold said the company’s lobbying on congestion pricing focused on “reminding” government officials of specific details included in the 2019 law creating the program.
Records show Coach USA, which runs buses into the Port Authority Bus Terminal from New Jersey and New York’s northern suburbs, also lobbied city and state officials in recent months. Company reps did not respond to a request for comment. The group wrote that failing to do so would lead to “toll shopping,” pushing more cars onto the free bridges over the East River.