Decongest, by fees and public transport

After years of dithering, New York has begun to charge cars for congestion in Manhattan, becoming the first American city to do so. It joins a list of cities in Asia and Europe that have gained enormously from the experience of cordoning their central business districts. Singapore set off the trend way back in 1975, improving it in the late 1990s. Variants of the model are in place in London and Stockholm since the early 2000s. The idea is to use the money raised from car drivers during peak periods to improve public transport, an area where New York lags behind cities such as Tokyo. The Japanese capital is an example of urban planning that did not put the automobile at its core. The outcome is that the city has 'ridiculously' low car ownership even by standards of developing economies.

Congestion charges by themselves don't lead to fall in traffic. They essentially redistribute traffic among peak and non-peak hours. The toll is inequitable in its effect on the suburbs, which grew out of the need to decongest cities. Fees are also regressive, with the impact felt more by lower-income households and by small businesses in some neighbourhoods. If not handled right, charges can transfer congestion to other parts of a city, such as residential areas. As the first mover in imposing congestion charges in the US, New York will be re-evaluating fundamental assumptions of American urban planning.

The timing of New York's congestion charges has been dictated by politics and there could be efforts by opponents, including Donald Trump, a one-time New Yorker, to block it. That would be a mistake. The US needs a new template over how its cities grow. Seattle, Washington DC and San Francisco are considering the idea of congestion pricing. Their choice will be influenced by New York's experience. There is a body of evidence available on the effects of congestion fees, but not from the US. In India, drastically enhancing and improving urban public transport systems to decongest would make sense, along with selective congestion fees.