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  • So, it's 5 o'clock in New York City and I'm about to catch a cab about 5 miles uptown.

  • Let's see how this goes.

  • So it just took me 40 minutes to go about 4.5 miles which is pretty typical for New York City rush hour.

  • Despite a speed limit of 25 miles per hour, the average car moving through NYC is driving

  • at just 7.1 MPH, down from 9.1 MPH in 2010.

  • And if you're in midtown it's even worse, with cars moving around 5 MPH.

  • But it's not just New York Citytraffic in cities like LA is so bad drivers could

  • be locked in gridlock for hours.

  • Of course this sucks for drivers, but it also makes activities like biking or walking less safe

  • because cyclists and pedestrians have to weave through an obstacle course of cars.

  • Not to mention the estimated 20 billion dollars in lost revenue due to wasted time sitting in traffic.

  • Now, there might be a solution, but if you commute by car, you are probably not gonna like it.

  • It's called congestion pricing. And it means charging drivers for using the roads.

  • "Congestion pricing is an idea whose time has come. And I believe this is the year to actually get it done."

  • New York's plan is still in the works, and it probably won't be enacted until 2020.

  • But the end game is to reduce congestion by discouraging people from driving if they have

  • other options like biking, or taking a train, or walking.

  • And to fund public transit at the same time.

  • It's not a groundbreaking idea: congestion pricing is already old news in cities around the world.

  • London enacted a similar policy in 2003.

  • This is a necessary step for us to reclaim some of the space that is currently given to a motorized vehicles without ending up with gridlock.

  • Nicole Badstuber researches urban infrastructure and policy at the University of Cambridge and according to her, the system's pretty simple.

  • When drivers enter the Central London congestion zone between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m., they're

  • charged 11 pounds 50 penceabout 15 US dollars.

  • New York City's plan will be similar.

  • When drivers enter Midtown or Lower Manhattan, they'll face a fee.

  • There's cameras all around the roads at the edges of the congestion charging area.

  • They automatically recognize the name plate of the car or the vehicle entering the zone.

  • London has a few exemptions in place, like

  • for people who live inside the congestion zone or vehicles with 9 or more seats and

  • New York City will likely do that, too. And the system works.

  • So since it was introduced, we've seen that private vehicles

  • entering the zone have gone down by 40 percent.

  • Overall vehicle traffic has gone down by 25 percent.

  • Cycling overall has increased 66% since the charge was instituted and bus ridership reached a 50-year high in 2011.

  • And wait times for buses decreased 25%, due to increased service both on buses and on the London Underground.

  • So we now, in comparison, still have much higher frequencies of London Underground services.

  • We can get more people, more capacity, more people into our trains because we have newer trains.

  • And like Nicole said, congestion pricing isn't just about removing cars from specific zones,

  • it's about reclaiming a space for the public.

  • Picture Trafalgar Square, but designed for carsan idea that was very much a reality before congestion pricing.

  • You would basically have a bus driving right past your nose as you come out of the National Gallery

  • Reclaiming that section of road made the square safer and opened it to more public events.

  • No one could imagine going back to what it was before, and having these cars and buses zoom past you.

  • London's plan is widely embraced today, but it was met with resistance at first, with

  • opponents arguing that congestion pricing could cut people off from health care, shopping, and schools.

  • Plus, people had to trust that the government would work efficiently and make significant

  • improvements to their public transit system.

  • But within a year, London's congestion charging had majority support.

  • As New York's plan is being finalized, some similar resistance is cropping up, which isn't too surprising.

  • After all, it's the first US city to implement this type of congestion pricing and no one

  • wants to pay for something they've gotten for free for so long.

  • But the plan could generate up to a billion dollars for public transit, a system that

  • most agree desperately needs repair.

  • And the city estimates it will reduce congestion by 8 to 13 percent and increase speeds by

  • up to 9 percent, making a ride through midtown a lot easier.

  • So, like other cities where congestion pricing has been successful, it's likely that people

  • will end up accepting it.

  • When we think of our roads, in particular in cities, as a sort of public good, as a public

  • space, then if you're taking up more of it you should probably be paying for that privilege.

  • If you start to think about how everyone gets around the city, charging cars begins to make a lot more sense:

  • You pay for parking, pay for the subway, pay to take a train or a bus, so

  • why wouldn't we pay for a city road?

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So, it's 5 o'clock in New York City and I'm about to catch a cab about 5 miles uptown.

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