Are there are cameras inside the zone tracking cars to bill them if you are already in the zone, or if cameras only track entry to the zone? (i.e. cameras only on the border). If someone happens to evade the cameras, do they catch them eventually just by traveling within the zone? I believe London for example has internal zone cameras.
The purpose being, first of all, to ensure that people do not somehow evade paying just by operating solely within the zone, defeating the purpose of reducing traffic. And secondly, to stop people from engaging in loophole seeking behavior.
I hope that loopholes and people defrauding the system (license plate obscuration, etc) are quickly caught and penalized. You would hope that if a car enters or is detected with invalid plates, it triggers an automatic report to police nearby to follow up. Otherwise, like so many things (it seems now) we just throw our hands up at people who evade the rules and charge those who follow them. (my comment spurred by an NYT article about how people might scam the system)
The number of people who entirely live and work and drive inside the zone is going to be vanishingly small in comparison to the people who transit the zone border so I'm not sure it's going to be that big of a deal.
I just wonder why they choose not to enforce this aspect of it when it can be a significant population (in a statistical sense) of the car traffic as well as revenue. Manhattan inside the highways is a big place.
Maybe it's the cost of the cameras to be installed.
> I just wonder why they choose not to enforce this aspect of it when it can be a significant population (in a statistical sense) of the car traffic as well as revenue.
It's not. 85% of Manhattan households don't own a car at all. The number is even higher inside the Congestion and Relief Zone. Almost all car traffic within the zone is from people who do not live within the zone.
Plus of that 15% that do own a car how many actually only use the car within the Congestion Zone a significant portion of the time? My guess is the number is well below 1% of car traffic could possibly dodge a significant portion of the toll.
> Plus of that 15% that do own a car how many actually only use the car within the Congestion Zone a significant portion of the time? My guess is the number is well below 1% of car traffic could possibly dodge a significant portion of the toll.
There's no real way to get reliable numbers on this, but I would estimate that >70% of people who live in the Congestion Relief Zone and own a car use it primarily as a way to access their second home in the Hudson Valley.
I would have said that in 2019, but the testimony from congestion pricing opponents during the multiple rounds of public hearings that we've had since then only further corroborate that impression.
I wager they did a study to weigh the costs and came up with the inevitable answer that chasing down the tenth of a percent (a wild guess but I think it's at worst an order of magnitude off from the actual number) of cars that exist only within the congestion zone and never leave would cost more than you'd gain both in fees and second order effects. Especially the population of cars most likely to never or rarely leave are being charged on a per ride basis, cabs and rideshare vehicles like Uber etc.
It's like all the efforts to drug test people on welfare, they cost vastly more than they save/recover.
I don't see what good it would do to have a car that can only travel in lower Manhattan. Yeah the few people who live there, own a car, and are lazy or use it for going to get groceries 2x a week might slip through, but that's nothing significant in my book.
What would worry me is if it leads to more license plate theft. Criminals get to ride for free, while legally registered owners have to fight the fines and clear their name in NYCs byzantine government.
If you had a friend or SO, one could drop off the other, then circle around a while and pick them up later. But that further reinforces my point that there's little to gain from "cheating" this way.
Are there are cameras inside the zone tracking cars to bill them if you are already in the zone, or if cameras only track entry to the zone? (i.e. cameras only on the border). If someone happens to evade the cameras, do they catch them eventually just by traveling within the zone? I believe London for example has internal zone cameras.
The purpose being, first of all, to ensure that people do not somehow evade paying just by operating solely within the zone, defeating the purpose of reducing traffic. And secondly, to stop people from engaging in loophole seeking behavior.
I hope that loopholes and people defrauding the system (license plate obscuration, etc) are quickly caught and penalized. You would hope that if a car enters or is detected with invalid plates, it triggers an automatic report to police nearby to follow up. Otherwise, like so many things (it seems now) we just throw our hands up at people who evade the rules and charge those who follow them. (my comment spurred by an NYT article about how people might scam the system)