The Bush-era origins of NYC congestion pricing

I hoped we would improve on a flawed way to evaluate transit projects, instead things got worse

In the case of New York City’s congestion pricing plan, which is currently dying (or not) at the hands of New York’s governor, progressives have argued for it as the governor (quietly backed by national Democrats) grew gun shy in the face of Republican opposition.

But because I’m old, I remember when New York City congestion pricing was being pushed by GOP President George W. Bush and the city’s mayor, Michael Bloomberg, who at the time was a moderate Republican. Democratic governor Elliot Spitzer got on board, and it seemed like it was going to happen, but the plan was ultimately killed by Democrats in the state assembly, led by Sheldon Silver who represented parts of the city. Some of that switcheroo is just a sign of how things change over time. But some of it reflects the extent to which the politics of this issue hinge in part on slightly extraneous framing issues. Today, a lot of progressives associate the congestion pricing plan with climate policy, which has helped consolidate support on the left, but makes conservatives see it as part of an overall agenda they hate.

The Bush version of congestion pricing, by contrast, was part of a larger transportation policy initiative that mass transit advocates didn’t like.