The head of MTA is taking a shot at New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy who continues to fight the Manhattan congestion pricing toll.
Governor Murphy wrote a letter to Port Authorty requesting monthly vehicle crossing data and toll revenue at the Lincoln, Holland and GWB. He wants to see if congestion pricing is leading to a drop in revenue for Port Authority at the Hudson River crossings. MTA Chair Janno Lieber was asked about Murphy's concerns.
"I can't figure out what's going on over there other than the tolls are up on the Garden State, the Turnpike. The tolls are up on the Port Authority crossings. The gas tax went up and yet they are still complaining about 30-thousand New Jersey's who are impeacted by congestion pricing when millions are effected by those things, I don't get it. "
New Jersey has amanded its lawsuit in its effort to stop congestion pricing. Murphy says the Hudson River crossing data will help in that regards.
Meanwhile, The MTA is highlighting a drop in traffic and drop in crashes from the congestion pricing toll for Manhattan that started up on January 5th.
Lieber says data shows there were were roughly 26-thousand-600 fewer vehicles that entered the congestion zone on the average weekday during the week of January 12th.
"Everybody's lived experience is the same, traffic in Midtown is dramatticaly down and its a much calmer environment."
But some critics say there's still a lot of traffic outside the congestion zone. Meanwhile, MTA numbers show there's been a drop in crashes in the zone, 90 so far this year, compared to 199 for the same time frame last year. The MTA has not revealed how much revenue congestion pricing has brought in.