Boy, congestion charges are a pain to implement. Back in 2018, I wrote that New York City was considering a congestion charge for drivers entering Manhattan below 60th Street. Then in 2019, about a year later, I followed up with this post saying that the plan could be adopted as early as April of that year!
That didn't exactly happen. But I followed up again with a post in 2022 saying that New York City was still considering a congestion charge. And ultimately, it did finally get approved, even if it did take much longer than expected. It was rebranded a congestion relief zone ("relief" sounds a lot less offensive than "pricing"), and it was set to come into effect on June 30, 2024
Boy, congestion charges are a pain to implement. Back in 2018, I wrote that New York City was considering a congestion charge for drivers entering Manhattan below 60th Street. Then in 2019, about a year later, I followed up with this post saying that the plan could be adopted as early as April of that year!
That didn't exactly happen. But I followed up again with a post in 2022 saying that New York City was still considering a congestion charge. And ultimately, it did finally get approved, even if it did take much longer than expected. It was rebranded a congestion relief zone ("relief" sounds a lot less offensive than "pricing"), and it was set to come into effect on June 30, 2024
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This remained the situation until the first week of this month, which is when NY Governor Kathy Hochul held a surprise press conference and announced that the congestion relief zone would be placed on "indefinite pause." I think that means cancelled. And it happened less than a month before the state was finally set to start collecting money.
There is a legal question around whether she actually had the authority to intervene in this way, but let's put that aside for now. Irrespective of that, this is a disappointing outcome precisely because we know that road pricing works. If you have a traffic congestion problem, price it, and then you will have less of it.
What's even more disappointing about this particular instance, though, is that many of us were looking to New York City to show us the way. We were looking for the most walkable and transit-rich city in the US to show people that, hey, road pricing works, and it won't decimate your CBD.
It is shocking to me that traffic congestion is allowed persist in the way that it does in our cities, and that there remains zero political will to actually address it. Instead of action, we like to preoccupy ourselves with red herrings. If only we didn't have streetcars, Ubers, and so many bike lanes, then there wouldn't be congestion.
So what hope do we have now that even New York won't do what is bold and right? Lots, as always. Cities, now is your chance to do what New York was too scared to do. Who will lead?
Apple had plans to make an electric car. Then, earlier this year, it cancelled that project. Now, the plan seems to be to just get Apple CarPlay into everyone else's cars.
This is obviously smart, because it expands the Apple ecosystem, but it also means that they have to make it so that automakers want them in their cars.
And since car companies have their own brands to manage, you end up with a somewhat unique scenario where Apple doesn't own and control both the hardware and software, and it needs to be flexible in order to scale.
My partner Kieran sent me this chart this morning:
It is a summary of the average weekday miles traveled by adults in private vehicles, including taxis and ride-hailing vehicles, for the 50 largest metro areas in the US (data is from the fall of 2023). At the top of the list with the most miles traveled is Raleigh, and at the bottom of the list with the fewest miles traveled is, not surprisingly, New York.
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This remained the situation until the first week of this month, which is when NY Governor Kathy Hochul held a surprise press conference and announced that the congestion relief zone would be placed on "indefinite pause." I think that means cancelled. And it happened less than a month before the state was finally set to start collecting money.
There is a legal question around whether she actually had the authority to intervene in this way, but let's put that aside for now. Irrespective of that, this is a disappointing outcome precisely because we know that road pricing works. If you have a traffic congestion problem, price it, and then you will have less of it.
What's even more disappointing about this particular instance, though, is that many of us were looking to New York City to show us the way. We were looking for the most walkable and transit-rich city in the US to show people that, hey, road pricing works, and it won't decimate your CBD.
It is shocking to me that traffic congestion is allowed persist in the way that it does in our cities, and that there remains zero political will to actually address it. Instead of action, we like to preoccupy ourselves with red herrings. If only we didn't have streetcars, Ubers, and so many bike lanes, then there wouldn't be congestion.
So what hope do we have now that even New York won't do what is bold and right? Lots, as always. Cities, now is your chance to do what New York was too scared to do. Who will lead?
Apple had plans to make an electric car. Then, earlier this year, it cancelled that project. Now, the plan seems to be to just get Apple CarPlay into everyone else's cars.
This is obviously smart, because it expands the Apple ecosystem, but it also means that they have to make it so that automakers want them in their cars.
And since car companies have their own brands to manage, you end up with a somewhat unique scenario where Apple doesn't own and control both the hardware and software, and it needs to be flexible in order to scale.
My partner Kieran sent me this chart this morning:
It is a summary of the average weekday miles traveled by adults in private vehicles, including taxis and ride-hailing vehicles, for the 50 largest metro areas in the US (data is from the fall of 2023). At the top of the list with the most miles traveled is Raleigh, and at the bottom of the list with the fewest miles traveled is, not surprisingly, New York.
The solution: A special co-branded experience that is going to allow car makers to heavily customize the appearance of CarPlay such that it reads as their own brand. This is how the next generation of the software will work and I think it's a fascinating balancing act.
Here's another screenshot:
If you're also interested in this sort of thing, here's a video explaining the new CarPlay's design system. It's primarily aimed at automakers and system developers, but you'll also like it if you're a designer.
The other cities on the bottom of this list probably won't surprise you either. But it's a good reminder of how built form determines our mobility choices. If you look up which US cities have the highest population densities and the most compact built forms, I think you'll generally find that it mirrors what you're seeing here.
The solution: A special co-branded experience that is going to allow car makers to heavily customize the appearance of CarPlay such that it reads as their own brand. This is how the next generation of the software will work and I think it's a fascinating balancing act.
Here's another screenshot:
If you're also interested in this sort of thing, here's a video explaining the new CarPlay's design system. It's primarily aimed at automakers and system developers, but you'll also like it if you're a designer.
The other cities on the bottom of this list probably won't surprise you either. But it's a good reminder of how built form determines our mobility choices. If you look up which US cities have the highest population densities and the most compact built forms, I think you'll generally find that it mirrors what you're seeing here.
