Here’s the priciest block to drive in NYC — thanks to new congestion toll: ‘Ridiculous!’
The Big Apple’s new congestion pricing mandate has turned one city block into a pricey proposition.
A single one-block stretch of First Avenue between 60th and 61st streets will now cost drivers $9 as they come off the Queensboro Bridge — even though they’re driving north and away from the zone.
“I’m shocked,” Clement Foster, a 42-year-old Bronx resident, said as he sat in his black BMW on the corner of First Avenue and 60th Street on Sunday, the first day of the controversial new toll.
“I didn’t think I’d get charged here,” the Con Ed worker said. “I don’t even have E-ZPass so I’m guessing I’m paying the most. This sucks. I probably won’t come into the city for work. I’ll stay in the Bronx.
“I’ll request it,” he said. “I’ll ask my boss not to send me into Manhattan.”
Cabbie Ilias Karanikolis, 41, called the whole thing “ridiculous.”
“I feel bad for all the people this will hurt,” the Astoria resident said. “It will hurt all the poor people here. We don’t have business now. This will kill us. The city does whatever they want to do.”
Meanwhile, the bridge has undergone an overnight transformation thanks to Albany’s new tax on driving into Midtown — it is no longer the only free ride into Manhattan from Queens and Brooklyn.
Drivers motoring into Manhattan on the bridge, also known as the 59th Street Bridge, will get hit with the $9 toll regardless of whether they’re heading to the heart of Midtown or north to the Bronx and upstate.
The Post on Sunday spotted one possible way around it — the 62nd Street exit off the upper deck.
“How many times will they charge me,” complained Uber driver Ali Mohammed of Queens. “I don’t know how I’m going to do this, how I’m going to charge people for the additional toll today.
“I’m not ready. I’m not set up for this yet,” he complained. “I saw the sign yesterday but I didn’t know it would start this morning. What will they make, a million dollars a day? Where is the money going? Someone’s getting rich.”
Gov. Kathy Hochul’s congestion pricing plan, which kicked in on Sunday, charges vehicles driving into Manhattan a new toll starting at 60th Street and below from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Cars are charged $9 per day for entering the toll zone during those hours, while motorcycles pay $4.50, small trucks $14.40, and large trucks $21.60. Taxis, black cars and rideshare drivers get a bit of a break, with cabs paying 75 cents per ride and rideshare vehicles charged $1.50 per ride.
The tolls go down by 75% overnight, but drivers without E-ZPass will get a notice in the mail and will pay a slightly larger fee — although it’s not clear what the exact amount will be.
The money raised by the controversial plan will go to the MTA to help pay for the transit agency’s $15 billion capital plan, state officials said.
But for most New Yorkers it’s just another pain in the pocket — and not many are keen on using public transportation because of a recent spike in crime in the Big Apple subway system.
“Congestion pricing is no incentive to take the subway,” said Manhattan lawyer Carlos Carbajal — whose building’s parking garage exits onto 60th Street. “There is disincentive to take the subway. The crime and the craziness. The violence in the subway. That’s disincentivized me.
“On the weekends, maybe I’ll consider the subway, if it’s just me,” he said. “But with all the craziness, with all the violent subway crime, I’m being disincentivized. Especially if I have my wife with me or my daughter. I’m really being disincentivized to take the subway on the weekends.”
In the meantime, Carbajal said he might be looking for a new home — for his car.
“I’m considering moving my car out of my building’s garage, to a garage a block or two north, maybe.”
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