Regional Plan Association
2023 – $20,000 Congestion Pricing
Regional Plan Association is a non-profit organization that conducts research, advocacy and planning to improve quality of life for all residents in the New York City metropolitan area. RPA conducts groundbreaking research on issues such as land use, transportation, the environment, and economic development. It also leads advocacy campaigns to foster a thriving, diverse, and climate friendly region and partners with local government to help them grow in an inclusive and sustainable way.
For over 100 years, Regional Plan Association has been an indispensable source of ideas for policy makers and opinion shapers across the New York City metropolitan region. Some of the NYC region’s most significant public works, economic development initiatives, and open space projects have their roots in RPA ideas and initiatives.
A cornerstone of RPA’s work is the development of long-range plans and policies to guide the region’s growth. Since the 1920s, RPA has produced four landmark plans for the region. The most recent was released in November 2017.
One of the ideas RPA has been advocating is a tolling program for Manhattan’s Central Business District, otherwise known as congestion pricing. For decades, RPA has been saying that the program is vital to managing traffic, raising revenue for public transit, and helping reduce pollution. RPA has coordinated a number of efforts over the years to build support for congestion pricing, and after a few failed attempts, was finally successfully in receiving New York State’s authorization for the program in 2019.
Beyond advocacy on congestion pricing, RPA has released a series of more technical documents, to help ensure the program is implemented in a manner that reduces local traffic especially in neighborhoods already overburdened, build trusts with the public, and treat residents from different geographic areas fairly. In 2019, RPA released Congestion Pricing: Getting it Right with the support of many civic leaders. RPA has also produced maps and fact sheets explaining the transit benefits of the program for communities across NYC.
RPA currently co-leads the Congestion Pricing Now coalition with a few partner organizations and continues its robust media and outreach work in anticipation of the implementation of the congestion pricing program in spring 2024. Congestion pricing is officially called the Central Business District Tolling Program and is being managed by the MTA.