NEW YORKERS LOVE to tout their exceptionalism. Late Sunday evening, the state Legislature in Albany handed city residents another first-of-its-kind distinction: New York will be the first US city to impose a fee for driving in a busy part of town. The congestion pricing plan is an effort to fight traffic—and to raise billions for the region’s floundering mass transit system.
The plan would, by 2021, establish a fee for cars or trucks entering the most hectic part of Manhattan, below 60th Street.