Class action lawsuit filed over congestion pricing

FOX 5 NY's Michelle Ross explains what they are hoping to accomplish with this lawsuit.

NEW YORK - Another lawsuit has been filed in an attempt to block the MTA from implementing congestion pricing.

The new suit, a class action lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court on Thursday, alleges that the MTA’s environmental assessment is not enough to move forward with the plan which they say will cause more air pollution in already impacted neighborhoods.

Susan Lee is the president of New Yorkers Against Congestion Pricing Tax.

From business owners to first responders and residents in environmental justice areas like the Lower East Side, the group says the MTA’s environmental assessment is insufficient and demands an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) which, in this case, would be issued by the Federal Highway Administration.

"They did an environmental assessment study which is essentially a rubber stamp," said New York City Council Member Bob Holden.

Jack Lester is the attorney representing the group.

"The difference is that an environmental assessment does not have to deal with mitigation or alternatives," Lester said. "If you do a full Environmental Impact Statement, then you have to look for alternatives. ‘How could we achieve the goals of congestion pricing without all of the negative impacts?’"

The MTA says congestion pricing will remove more than 150,000 cars from the local streets. The group says it will reroute traffic to the toll-free FDR drive.

Residents who live along the highway already suffer from higher rates of respiratory illness because of traffic-related air pollution.

Aixa Torres is the president of the resident association at NYCHA’s Alfred E. Smith Houses.

"It is about all the residents who live alongside the FDR," Torres said. "It's going to be a parking lot."

Trevor Holland is the president of the resident association of his building at Two Bridges Tower.

MTA Chief of Policy and External Relations John McCarthy issued the following statement in response:

"This issue has been exhaustively studied in the 4,000-plus page environmental assessment, and will be re-evaluated for the adopted tolling structure before tolling commences. It’s time to move forward and deal with the congestion that’s clogging roads and slowing down emergency vehicles, buses and commerce while also polluting the air we breathe."

Riders Alliance, a grassroots organization dedicated to improving public transportation riders, disagrees with the lawsuit.

"Today, a handful of cynics with second homes filed yet another frivolous lawsuit in a parade of privileged objections to a fairer New York with modern, reliable, accessible public transit and cleaner air. What nerve to imagine that millions of subway and bus riders have similar recourse to expensive litigation and bucolic escapes from the pollution they leave in their wake each weekend and extended holiday. For shame."

The $15 daytime toll is the current suggestion which the MTA estimates will bring in $1 billion a year for upgrades.

The possibility of congestion pricing has garnered bi-partisan support against the potential program. Republican and democratic lawmakers in the City Council’s Common Sense Caucus are also named as plaintiffs in the new lawsuit.

The next step in the lawsuit is for the government and various agencies to file an answer. The court will then set a schedule to proceed.