More New Yorkers Want to Keep Congestion Tolling, Sienna Poll Finds
NEW YORK—A larger percentage of NYC residents want congestion pricing to stay, sending a message to the Trump administration that his treat to remove the tolls on March 21 is unpopular.
According to the Siena College poll released Mon., March 10, a surveyed New York City registered voters found that 42% said they wanted the toll to remain in place. The toll costs most drivers $9 a day to drive on surface streets in Midtown and lower Manhattan. The poll found 35% said they wanted the toll removed. The remaining 23% said they were either “in the middle” or didn’t know how they felt about the toll.
The latest Sienna finding reveals a more positive attitude on Congestion Relief Zone tolling than a Quinnipiac University poll taken at the end of February, which showed 41% of city voters supported the poll while 54% opposed it, the Daily News reported.
Statewide, New Yorkers questioned last week as part of Monday’s Siena poll were cooler on the toll, which is meant to both reduce vehicular congestion and improve public transit primarily within the five boroughs.
Poll Findings
Suburban respondents were most strongly against the toll, with 48% in favor of its elimination and 30% saying it should stay in place. Upstate voters rejected the toll by 40% to 25%.
The polling comes less than two weeks before an arbitrary March 21 deadline set by the Trump administration for ending the program, which was approved by federal regulators last year and went into effect in January.
Gov. Hochul has vowed to fight the federal order to end congestion pricing, calling it part of an “existential threat” to public transit from the Trump regime in a speech to the MTA’s board last month.
The MTA said the tolling system will remain absent a court order. The transit agency has sued Trump’s DOT in federal court, calling the move to renege federal approval of the toll and end a program mandated by state law unconstitutional.