Danny Pearlstein: Congestion Relief and New Yorkers' Fight for Afforable, Reliable Public Transit

Abstract

Congestion pricing began in Manhattan in January after decades of discussion. Drivers and bus riders in the most heavily trafficked part of the city are saving valuable time, crashes and honking are down, businesses are thriving, hundreds of millions of dollars are being paid for public transit upgrades, and air quality is steady or improving.

Riders Alliance members began demanding affordable, reliable service a dozen years earlier. In between, subway delays quadrupled, and New Yorkers blamed former governor Andrew Cuomo for the quality of our train service. Meanwhile, riders fought for and won the nation’s largest low-income fare discount program funded in the city budget.

Compared with past efforts to adopt congestion pricing, this one started from the premise that millions of transit riders deserve better. In contrast, few relatively affluent drivers would shoulder most of the toll.

With congestion pricing working and more popular than ever—though also the target of a disinformation effort out of Washington, DC—riders are looking ahead to building on our big success in future campaigns, with reason for optimism.

Zohran Mamdani, the leading candidate for mayor this fall, promised to make buses 'fast and free.' This is a crucial acknowledgement that transit riders struggle to afford life in the city and that time is money. For millions of bus riders of the nation’s slowest service, transformative politics that also transform the streets can’t come soon enough.

Biography

Danny Pearlstein (M.R.P. '07) is Policy & Communications Director at Riders Alliance, New York City's grassroots organization of public transit riders. The group builds power and community to win better, faster, more frequent, reliable, accessible, affordable buses, trains, and paratransit service. He joined as a member in 2014 and started full-time in 2017 after working as a New York City Council staffer.