Engineering Inc. - September/October 2019 - 15

TOSHI SASAKI / GETTY IMAGES

and they understand the dynamics and strategies for getting
things accomplished in the capitol."
Over the next several years, Move NY built support for the
model congestion pricing plan to fix the Metropolitan Transit
Authority (MTA) system. "The most important effort was our
grass roots organizing," says Matthiessen. "Advocates were able
to channel the increasing frustration of transit riders."
One peculiarity about MTA is that the governor and the
state Legislature-rather than city officials-oversee the system. "It was important to make sure the governor felt the
appropriate pressure to make this a priority," Matthiessen says.
Concurrently, Move NY continued to fine-tune the congestion pricing plan that Schwartz developed. Primary pieces
of the plan were a one-time daily cap on tolls into the CBD,
which would be variable depending on the time and the day,
lower tolls for bridges and tunnels serving the outer parts of
the city and targeting a portion of the revenue toward improving service in "transit deserts," areas of the city with little or no
access to transit.
Opponents of the plan
focused on the impact
congestion pricing would
have on lower-income
New Yorkers who must
drive to work or live
in the CBD. Move NY
countered with a report by
the Community Service
Society (CSS), a nonprofit
that supports congestion
pricing, which found
that only 118,000 commuters, or 4 percent of working residents from the boroughs outside of Manhattan, would have
to pay the congestion fee, and only 5,000 of those would be
low-income.
"The CSS study found a 38:1 ratio in terms of low-income
benefiting because the vast majority use transit versus those
who may have to pay the charge," says Schwartz.
In 2016, Schwartz began talking with Ali Chaudhry, who

Traffic in the CBD
had also gotten
worse, with the
average speed
in Midtown
falling to
4.7 mph

"For New York City
to grow, we need a
good, strong transit
system, stable funding
and relief from the
paralyzing traffic."
SAM SCHWARTZ
CEO
SAM SCHWARTZ ENGINEERING

at the time served as counsel to Cuomo. He later became the
deputy secretary of the NY Department of Transportation and
then in 2018 joined AECOM as senior vice president and chief
development officer.
"We worked through his Move NY plan, flagging legal issues
and pieces that might not be politically palatable," Chaudhry
says. "We got the plan to the point where it could be viable for
the governor to contemplate endorsing."
WINNING PASSAGE

All the while, the city's transit system was getting worse and
falling into a death spiral in which decreasing ridership forced
fare hikes which further decreased ridership and required even
higher fares. According to The New York Times, Cuomo suggested that without a new source of revenue, subway and bus
fares in the city would have to increase by 30 percent.
Traffic in the CBD had also gotten worse, with the average
speed in Midtown falling to 4.7 mph. According to INRIX, a
transportation analytics firm, the average speed in the nation's
downtowns is 15 mph.
The crisis had arrived, and Move NY was ready. When
Cuomo embraced the plan and signaled that he would lead it,
Matthiessen moved to expand support. "We ultimately changed
our name to FixOurTransit," he says. "It is the same coalition
SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2019

ENGINEERING INC.

Engineering Inc. - September/October 2019

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