For a third time, a deadline has come and gone for the MTA to shut off the congestion pricing tolls.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy made the demand in February, then extended the deadline to April; then in April, extended it to May 21.

But it was just another Wednesday in Lower Manhattan. The tolls remained.

What You Need To Know

  • After an April letter setting a third deadline on May 21 for the MTA to either shut down the congestion pricing tolls or explain why they were legal, the tolls stayed on 

  • Earlier in May, the MTA filed for a preliminary injunction to prevent the U.S. Department of Transportation from following through on threats to projects and funding if the MTA did not comply with Secretary Duffy’s demands in his April letter, but the MTA’s lawyer sent a letter explaining why the tolls are legal

  • MTA data shows the program is working, reducing daily vehicle entries into Lower Manhattan by 12% on average in April and producing revenue for transit

“It looks like nothing is going to happen today,” Michael Gerrard, a Columbia Law School professor and environmental lawyer, said. “Today is the latest deadline that they set forth. We'll see what happens next Tuesday when there's the hearing before Judge Liman in the federal court.”

In a six-page letter Wednesday, the MTA’s lawyer responded to Duffy’s April 21 letter that said the authority must either give its legal reasoning for keeping the tolls on or shut them off, or the feds would nix future construction projects and environmental approvals within Manhattan, and the agency would also withhold funds for projects throughout the city for continued noncompliance. 

The MTA has filed for a preliminary injunction to stop the U.S. DOT from following through on those threats.

But in its filing opposing the preliminary injunction last week, the agency now claims it “might consider” imposing additional compliance measures, and that plaintiffs were provided with the “opportunity to be heard” on termination and any proposed compliance measures. Gerrard is one of many signatories to an amicus brief supporting the MTA.

“I don't think that these threats should be taken very seriously,” he said. “A principle argument by the Trump administration is that this is bad for the middle class. It's far from that. It really [is] the bulk of the middle class take to take transit.”

Meanwhile, MTA data shows the program is doing what it set out to do. In April, there were just over 568,000 vehicle entries into the Central Business District, also known as CBD, which includes the roads below 60th Street that aren’t tolled. Also, more than 76,000 vehicle drop from the baseline for April based on traffic from the prior few years.

Supporters say those numbers just bolster the MTA’s case.

“Congestion pricing is a huge success,” Danny Pearlstein, policy and communications director at Riders Alliance, said. “It's perfectly legal, and it's ready for a judge's decision that the federal government has to stand down.”