Editor’s Note: Accessibility improvements hinge on congestion pricing’s return, for now

Gov. Kathy Hochul’s “pause” on congestion pricing on June 5 left some hope for its return. The governor said that after hearing New Yorkers complain about the new toll for motorists venturing into lower Manhattan, she decided it was best to put it on hold and use alternative funding sources for the $15 billion the program would have generated for Metropolitan Transportation Authority capital improvements. That included making much-needed accessibility improvements throughout the two-century old system. 

The transit activist group Riders Alliance, state Sen. Jabari Brisport, Assembly Member Phara Souffrant Forrest and City Council Member Chi Ossé rallied at the Nostrand Avenue subway station in Brooklyn on Wednesday calling for Hochul to unpause congestion pricing so that accessibility improvement projects, including installation of subway elevators, could move forward. The governor, who promised there will be alternatives to fund the MTA projects, was not able to get support from the Legislature before lawmakers returned home at the end of this last session. She at least left hope for some that she might unpause congestive pricing some day.

“I think she knows the need that we have $15 billion worth of work,” said Quemuel “Q” Arroyo, the MTA’s Chief Accessibility Officer, who hasn’t given up hope on Hochul’s commitment to the accessibility improvements, especially to meet requirements under the Americans with Disabilities Act. “They will happen, maybe not this year, but they will happen. They will be funded. How? Maybe congestion pricing, maybe not, but she's been a huge supporter of the MTA,” he said. “She understands that the MTA is like the blood that keeps New York City alive.”