{"id":380192,"date":"2026-10-22T23:28:25","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T23:28:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/380192\/"},"modified":"2026-10-22T23:28:25","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T23:28:25","slug":"boston-mayor-wu-wont-drop-congestion-pricing-idea-looks-to-new-york-for-inspiration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/380192\/","title":{"rendered":"Boston Mayor Wu won’t drop congestion pricing idea, looks to New York for inspiration"},"content":{"rendered":"

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said the city plans to keep exploring congestion pricing<\/a> and is deploying her team to New York \u201cin a couple of weeks\u201d to learn more about how the contentious tax on drivers has cut traffic in Manhattan.<\/p>\n

Wu said congestion pricing has \u201cbeen a huge source of funding for public transit improvements\u201d in New York City, and wants to learn more about how Boston may benefit from a similar tolling system that charges drivers entering downtown.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have been in touch with New York,\u201d Wu said Wednesday on GBH\u2019s Boston Public Radio. \u201cThere\u2019s a delegation going down in a couple weeks that\u2019s going to represent city, state, business, Transportation for Massachusetts, and some other organizations are leading that.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, from everything I hear from our colleagues in New York, it\u2019s served multiple purposes. It\u2019s obviously very big and complicated and has to fit the situation, but we\u2019re going to learn more,\u201d Wu added.<\/p>\n

Speaking with reporters outside the station, Wu said she won\u2019t be part of the delegation traveling to New York, but members of her team will be going. She didn\u2019t name specific employees.<\/p>\n

Wu emphasized that the city does not have concrete plans to implement congestion pricing at this point in time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s not a specific plan on the table,\u201d Wu said. \u201cIt\u2019s really just learning and understanding what the real before and after has been for New York. They\u2019re a very high-profile example of finding ways to cut traffic, make air quality better \u2026 so we\u2019re sending our team to hear it directly.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, the trip advances the mayor\u2019s idea to implement a potential congestion tax since it was floated last April in the city\u2019s climate action plan<\/a> as a way to discourage driving.<\/p>\n

In New York, a passenger car entering Manhattan at or below 60th Street is $9 during peak hours with an E-ZPass.<\/p>\n

A Suffolk University\/Boston Globe poll<\/a> released in June found 69.2% of respondents would not be willing to pay to drive downtown if there was less traffic.<\/p>\n

When asked about polling, Wu indicated the opposition wouldn\u2019t factor into the city\u2019s plans.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything should be on the table when it comes to finding ways to fix traffic and have the quality of life that we all deserve,\u201d Wu said. \u201cWe have a lot of challenges in Massachusetts. We want to be a community that is growing rather than one that\u2019s losing population, and we have to find ways with every possible idea to understand if there\u2019s any benefit that could apply locally too.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said the city plans to keep exploring congestion pricing and is deploying her team…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":380193,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[84192,84197,84193,748,84198,84194,16048,9,84196,11,10],"class_list":["post-380192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-boston-mayor","tag-boston-news","tag-boston-transportation","tag-congestion-pricing","tag-massachusetts-news","tag-mbta","tag-michelle-wu","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city-congestion-pricing","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=380192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380192\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/380193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=380192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=380192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=380192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}