When Jesse King glanced at his E-ZPass bill from January, he noticed four mysterious charges that he could not explain.
The Manhattanite, who often zips around city streets on a Vespa motorbike, was charged congestion tolls on four separate days early in the month. But on those days, King says he is certain all his trips originated at a garage on West 30th Street — and terminated within the boundaries of the congestion zone.
Vehicle trips that begin and end in Manhattan below the 60th Street boundary are supposed to be exempt.
“There’s no record of me leaving the zone and then re-entering the zone,” King told NBC New York.
According to the MTA’s Frequently Asked Questions webpage, “Traveling within the zone – even along or across excluded roadways like West Street or the FDR Drive south of 61st Street – does not incur a toll.”
After the I-Team presented King’s E-ZPass bill to the MTA, the agency concluded the four congestion tolls in question, each amounting to $4.50, should be refunded. But the agency has not explained why those tolls were charged in the first place, or whether congestion cameras have initiated similar mistaken tolls to other drivers.
“In the relatively few cases of inadvertent billing errors, the MTA provides credit to affected motorists as appropriate,” said Meghan Keegan, an MTA spokesperson.
Though the errant charges amount to just $18.00, King and some critics of congestion pricing say this case reveals a lack of transparency in the way congestion tolls are reported on E-ZPass bills.
Unlike tunnel tolls, which are clearly labeled according to the particular tunnel a driver uses, E-ZPass bills do not label which cameras — at which intersections — are involved in prompting a congestion toll.
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Rep. Josh Gottheimer, a Democratic candidate for New Jersey Governor and one of the loudest critics of congestion pricing, said motorists should be able to easily discover which camera or cameras captured their vehicles incurring a toll on 60th Street and below.
“Just like if I got charged somewhere on the [New Jersey] Turnpike or [Garden State] Parkway, you should know which camera charged you the congestion tax. Where you came in and where you came out,” Gottheimer said.
The MTA says its own employees have the ability to verify locations and times recorded by toll cameras as needed, but the agency did not respond to questions about how commuters might determine for themselves which congestion cameras initiate which tolls. The question of transparency is playing out as the Trump Administration seeks to put an end to congestion pricing altogether.
Though public transportation advocates have applauded early results of the program, including the collection of $49 million in revenue for mass transit and measurably faster commute times, the Federal Highway Administration ordered the MTA to “cease the collection of tolls” by March 21st.
Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and MTA leaders, meanwhile, have insisted they will not turn off tolling cameras without an order from a federal judge.
King says he actually supports congestion pricing, but he worries unexplained charges could reduce confidence in the program, especially when it is already under fire from Washington, D.C.
“I think the congestion toll is probably pretty helpful,” King said. “It is the law, so I follow it. It’s not a big deal. But what’s not appropriate is getting charged when I haven’t left the zone.”
