"Entering Downtown Costs 30,000 Won First"… New York Struggles to Ease Traffic Congestion

Congestion Charge Imposed on Entry to Central Park Road
Controversy Over Congestion Charge for Namsan Tunnel in Seoul, Korea

The city of New York will impose congestion charges on vehicles entering downtown Manhattan as early as next spring.

Traffic congestion in Manhattan, New York
Photo by AFP Yonhap News>

On the 27th (local time), The New York Times (NYT) reported that the U.S. Federal Highway Administration (FHA) has approved New York City's plan to introduce congestion charges.

Congestion charges are a system that charges tolls to passenger cars entering specific areas in large cities to alleviate traffic congestion.

New York City plans to charge passenger cars entering below 60th Street at the southern end of Central Park in central Manhattan $23 (approximately 29,000 KRW) during rush hours and $17 (approximately 22,000 KRW) at other times.

The revenue from congestion charges is expected to be about $1 billion annually (approximately 1.299 trillion KRW) and will be used for maintenance and expansion of the public transportation system.

Many politicians believe the congestion charge system will have a positive effect in reducing downtown traffic jams and improving air quality, but some argue that imposing congestion charges in addition to existing tolls is excessive.

Regarding doubts about the effectiveness of the Namsan Tunnel congestion charge... Traffic volume increased by 13% after exemption

The toll booth at Namsan No. 1 Tunnel when the toll was waived [Photo by Yonhap News]

Meanwhile, in Seoul, congestion charges (2,000 KRW) have been collected for the Namsan 1 and 3 tunnels since 1996 to alleviate downtown traffic congestion.

However, recently, doubts about the effectiveness of this system have been raised, and Seoul City conducted an experiment exempting tolls from March to verify the policy's effect. In phase 1 (March 17 to April 16), tolls were exempted for the Namsan Tunnel in the direction of Gangnam, and in phase 2 (April 17 to May 16), tolls were exempted in both directions.

According to the "Temporary Suspension Monitoring of Namsan Tunnel Congestion Charge Collection" announced by Seoul City on the 27th, the average daily number of vehicles passing through the tunnel during phase 2 was 85,363. This is a 12.9% increase compared to the average traffic volume of 77,619 before the congestion charge exemption.

The traffic speeds on Samil-daero and Sogong-ro, which are directly adjacent to the Namsan Tunnel in the Gangnam direction, also decreased by 9.4% and 13.5%, respectively, during phase 2, indicating an impact on downtown congestion.

Based on the results of this experiment, Seoul City plans to decide whether to abolish the congestion charge by December after expert discussions and collecting public opinions.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.