Congestion pricing board weighs Manhattan tolling impact on low-income Long Islanders

The vast majority of low-income New Yorkers who drive to jobs in Manhattan because they don’t have a better transit option come from Long Island, and they could be hit especially hard by the MTA’s forthcoming congestion pricing plan, project officials said Thursday.

Of the 1.3 million people who work in Manhattan’s central business district — below 60th Street — just 143,000 drive, according to MTA data. Of those, about 16,100 come from households earning less than $50,000 annually.

Most of those live within a half-mile of a bus or train that could help get them to work, leaving about 1,560 low-income drivers commuting to Manhattan who don’t have direct access to transit. A map of where those people lived showed that the highest concentration — about half — is on Long Island, with most of the rest divided between New Jersey and Connecticut.

The information was revealed at the second meeting of the Traffic Mobility Review Board — the six-member group charged with helping determine toll amounts and policies for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Central Business District Tolling Program. The plan will charge most motorists up to $23 each day they drive below 60th Street in Manhattan, or up to $34.50 if they don't have an E-ZPass. MTA officials are aiming to start the program in May.

Revisiting a topic that came up during the group’s first meeting last month, project special adviser Juliette Michaelson provided board members with information about how congestion pricing would impact low-income motorists who rely on their cars to get to jobs in Manhattan.

Michaelson acknowledged that because some bus and train routes offer little or no service during some parts of the day, the actual universe of low-income commuters without transit options may be bigger. But she said there are also some people who “can’t walk to transit, but actually do live a short drive from a commuter rail station and may have better transit access than it appears.”

TMRB member John Durso, who represents Long Island, said even if some low-income commuters can drive to the closest Long Island Rail Road station, they may not be able to find parking there.

“If you’re already a low-income worker, going 2½ hours to get in, to get back … How do you say to someone there … ‘Listen, you have to park your car and commute,’ ” said Durso, president of the Long Island Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO. “There has to be some sort of consideration of how we’re going to address it.”

The discussion came as the TMRB wades through dozens of potential exemptions from the new tolls. MTA officials have noted that the more exemptions they grant, the higher the toll has to be on everyone else to hit the $1 billion annual toll revenue goal.

TMRB member Kathryn Wylde said the plight of low-income workers in “transit deserts” should be addressed through more investment in public transportation, and not by giving them a free ride.

“I think the tools that we are talking about to address the equity issue are not just exemptions, or we will never solve this problem,” Wylde said. “We’ll have a situation where a few drivers are paying extraordinary pricing, and everyone else is exempt.”

By Alfonso A. Castillo

alfonso.castillo@newsday.com@alfonsoreports

Alfonso Castillo has been reporting for Newsday since 1999 and covering the transportation beat since 2008. He grew up in the Bronx and Queens and now lives in Valley Stream with his wife and two sons.