Environmental Study of Congestion-pricing Plans has Bronx Residents Asking: What's in it for Us?
Gothamist
By: Arya Sundram
Plans to reduce traffic and pollution in New York City, on the wish list of environmentalists since the early 20th century, could have the opposite effect in the Bronx, according to a long-awaited assessment of plans to toll vehicles entering Manhattan south of 60th Street.
The Cross Bronx Expressway would experience more traffic – potentially upward of 700 extra trucks a day – under all of the seven scenarios of congestion pricing studied by researchers, according to a report released by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and being shared with communities. And the highway and borough could face more pollution, too.
The projected upticks in the Bronx are concerning to researchers and residents because of the borough’s notoriously high asthma rates and existing traffic and congestion woes. For them, the findings – key to an upcoming federal decision on the plan’s future – lend credence to long-standing complaints that the interests of Bronx residents are subordinate to those of wealthier communities.
