Boston congestion pricing: Will New York City’s move advance it?

The leaders of New York—city and state—have reached an agreement for funding mass transit in the five boroughs that includes congestion pricing. Specifically, that would mean charging most motorists to drive into the busier areas of Manhattan at busier times.

Will such a move ripple up the coast to Boston?

To be sure, there is no proposal at any government level as of late February to enact congestion pricing in Boston or the Boston area. But the idea has come up regularly, and has grown more prominent as the challenges of the region’s mass transit system grow. And grow. And grow.

Congestion pricing has also come up as a way for Boston to slash carbon emissions.

Whether New York’s move does drive a change in Boston remains to be seen, of course, and implementing congestion pricing in Gotham could take at least two years, if not longer—and that assumes the new agreement makes it through the state legislature this spring.

But, given that New York would be the first city (and obviously the largest) to implement such a system, it only seems reasonable to ask if that would be a tipping point for the rest of the nation. What’d you think?

• Cuomo, de Blasio unveil plan to ‘transform’ MTA with congestion pricing, reorganization [Curbed NY]
• 10 Boston transportation milestones that need to hurry up and arrive [Curbed Boston]
• A carbon-neutral Boston by 2050 would require congestion pricing, tens of thousands of building retrofits: Report [Curbed Boston]
• T fare increases will lead to service improvements: MBTA general manager [Curbed Boston]
• Massachusetts transportation funding running short amid population boom: Report [Curbed Boston]
• Blue Line-Red Line connector a state priority now—by 2040 [Curbed Boston]