While in Bogotá implementation is being studied, in New York it is ruled out; because?

A few days after its implementation, the authorities of New York, the largest city in the United States, They decided to stop the implementation of the congestion charge, a measure that will be studied in Bogotá and, as its name indicates, it consists of charging a fee for vehicles that wish to enter the most congested areas of the city. What happened?

According to the criteria of

The measure was going to come into force on June 30 and consisted of drivers of private vehicles having to pay up to 15 dollars (around 62,000 pesos) to drive to the commercial district of Manhattan, the area with the busiest traffic jams in the ‘Greater’. Apple’.

However, earlier this month, New York Governor Kathy Hochul decided to indefinitely suspend the implementation of this fee, arguing that it seeks to “avoid additional burdens for working and middle class families.”

Comments both for and against were immediate, because while some officials, such as state senator Luis R. Sepúlveda, said that “they should be aware of the economic reality of New Yorkers,” others stated that the measure sought to reduce pollution and, above all, finance improvements to public transportation.

“The money they would get was going to be used for improvements to the subway, which really needs it. Today, for example, I was late for work because I was stuck for about 20 minutes due to signaling problems. Some signs are 100 years old,” said Hayrettin Günç, an urban planner at the Global Designing Cities Initiative (GDCI), who lives in New York.

More specifically, the money raised by congestion charging, an alternative that was studied for around 15 years, was going to be used, on the one hand, to improve the condition of the lifesaving cameras on Manhattan streets.

It is a bad precedent for the discussion in Bogotá. Approval of the charge in the Council will be difficult. Opponents will use the postponement in New York as an argument against

On the other hand, was going to contribute 1,000 million dollars annually to large mobility projects such as expanding the Second Avenue subway, new subway cars and new elevators to make the system accessible to people in wheelchairs.

While the issue is being debated in the American city, in Bogotá concern arose among experts that something similar would happen in the city, since the Development Plan approved an article to carry out a study of how this figure could be implemented in the capital. However, it has already been denied four times before in the Council.

“It is a bad precedent for the discussion in Bogotá. Approval of the charge in the Council will be difficult. Opponents will use the postponement in New York as an argument against its eventual application in the city,” said Darío Hidalgo, mobility expert and professor of Transportation and Logistics at the Javeriana University.

A political discussion?

According to ‘The Economist’, those who usually travel in the “back seats” of private vehicles “may have influenced the thinking” of Governor Hochul, and her decision could be related to a political struggle between the Democratic Party, the which is part, and the republican.

Democrats, according to the aforementioned media, would be concerned about the November legislative elections in Long Island and Westchester County, where voters did not agree with the charge, which could weaken this party’s participation in the House of Representatives. Representatives.

On the other hand, there are already several NGOs that have created a movement on social networks with the hashtag #CongestionKathy to oppose the governor. ”He said he eliminated congestion pricing on behalf of ‘working-class’ people who dine out, but polls suggest it was the rich who approved of his decision,” said Streetsblog, one such organization.

The panorama in Bogotá would not be very different, since in the Council, although the issue has already been debated, there are still defenders of the private vehicle who oppose the initiative, despite the fact that this means of transportation only represents 14% of the daily trips in the city, according to the 2023 Mobility Survey.

For example, Diana Diago, councilor for the Democratic Center, stated that she does not agree “with measures that affect the pockets of Bogota residents. The lack of foresight and poor management of governments cannot continue to be transferred to the citizens. Nor can we continue to persecute the use of private cars in Bogotá, especially when there is a terrible mass transportation service.”

For his part, Hidalgo indicated that “vehicle owners have already shown that they have a political force, which although not organized, is quite strong, but it is because many of the people who make decisions, for example, in the Council of the city, they are motorists.”

After four failed attempts, the discussion returns to Bogotá

Taking into account the importance of controlling traffic in Bogotá, since citizens lose around 117 hours a year in traffic jams, according to 2023 data from the TomTom Traffic Index, the study of congestion charging was reflected in article 189 of the Traffic Plan. Development.

Nonethelessmobility experts know that implementing it in the capital is quite a challengesince since 2015 it has been studied and put on the table, but it has been denied four times by the Council.

“The District spent about $3.2 billion on a study to implement it and it was only on the study. They have always said that we should not have it because our transportation system is not complete or high quality. Bogotá does not have to look at New York but rather has to remember its own history”, indicated Carlos Felipe Pardo, founding urban planner of Despacio.org.

Experts agree that, for a measure like this to be approved, the benefits it could bring must be remembered. For example, in London, where it has been operating for several decades, they managed to reduce congestion by 30% in the areas with the most traffic jams.

“The analyzes always show a change in the modal split, that is, they make other decisions regarding their mode of transport or decide to travel before or after the restriction. When you have flexible hours, these measures have less negative feedback from citizens,” said Carolina Álvarez, infrastructure coordinator in Colombia for the Bloomberg initiative for Global Road Safety (BIGRS).

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