by John M. Grondelski, American Thinker:

New York City launched its “congestion pricing” scheme January 5. It’s a charge for entering midtown Manhattan, ostensibly designed to reduce “congestion” in the Big Apple while channeling money to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the entity that runs New York’s subways. Besides funding the subways, the idea is to push people to take mass transit in lieu of driving.

The idea was originally planned for last summer but diverted at the last minute by New York governor Kathy Hochul. Governor Hokum insisted she wanted to modify the program; the real likelihood was that dropping a new charge just before elections might not have redounded well to blue hopes, even in indigo New York. With elections safely gone, the plan could be trotted out and was fast-track approved by the lame duck Biden Administration, which also spun “congestion pricing” as a way of reducing climate change by disincentivizing driving.