NYC congestion pricing cuts air pollution by a fifth in six months

Re:NYC congestion pricing cuts air pollution by a fifth in s... by Dylan16807 on Tuesday December 09, 2025 @10:34PM (#46213722)

"There is no such thing as a free lunch" is a very strong argument for tolls, I hope you realize.

> everyone paying the tolls who now needs to engage in additional pollution-causing economic activity merely to offset the costs of government-mandated congestion pricing

I don't think that's how economics work. People are already doing their best to generate money. Also even if that did happen, the thing you're describing as "pollution-causing" is GDP growth, which is overall desirable.

> tariffs

Whether a tariff is good depends on what the goal is (and whether it works toward that goal).

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Re:NYC congestion pricing cuts air pollution by a fifth in s... by RhysU on Tuesday December 09, 2025 @10:41PM (#46213789)

If people aren't working harder to offset the tolls then they're strictly poorer as a consequence of the toll.

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Re:NYC congestion pricing cuts air pollution by a fifth in s... by Dylan16807 on Tuesday December 09, 2025 @10:44PM (#46213812)

You can say that about any tax. Which makes it extremely unconvincing as an argument against any particular tax, since in the long term money not collected from tax A will be collected from tax B.

(And they have the option of not driving, too.)

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Re:NYC congestion pricing cuts air pollution by a fifth in s... by 8note on Tuesday December 09, 2025 @10:53PM (#46213889)

not strictly. the pollution has gone down, for instance, reducing future health costs, and improving quality of life.

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