[varispeed]

Poverty is relative. Someone may be compensated well enough to afford rent, parking and all that, but after paying everything they have little money left for themselves. That $15 may eat into this meaning you may reconsider whatever arrangement you have - effectively pricing you out.

> The extra $15 will discourage people from making unnecessary trips into the city thus reducing traffic/congestion and improving quality of life for people who live in the city.

How is that going to do that? If someone is affluent, I don't think they are going to think twice about spending $15 extra. It will discourage people who cannot afford it.

> For instance if someone live in Brooklyn and needs to make a trip to lower Manhattan they'll be more likely to use public transportation.

Yes, people who can't afford spending $15. Anyone else will continue as they do, as private transport is safer, quicker and more convenient - plus there will be better traffic, as the poor will be taken off the road.

[avbanks]

> Yes, people who can't afford spending $15. Anyone else will continue as they do, as private transport is safer, quicker and more convenient - plus there will be better traffic, as the poor will be taken off the road.

This isn't true most of the time is quicker to take public transportation due to the congestion issues. Cars don't scale.

> How is that going to do that? If someone is affluent, I don't think they are going to think twice about spending $15 extra. It will discourage people who cannot afford it.

Yes the point is to discourage people from driving into Lower Manhattan. Lower Manhattan is easily accessible by public transportation.

> Poverty is relative. Someone may be compensated well enough to afford rent, parking and all that, but after paying everything they have little money left for themselves. That $15 may eat into this meaning you may reconsider whatever arrangement you have - effectively pricing you out.

The poverty rate for NYC is $35,000 if someone can afford to pay $24,000 yearly in parking I doubt they're in poverty, especially when public transportation is available and is quicker due to the high congestion. This wouldn't be implemented if there wasn't an alternative.

[varispeed]

> This isn't true most of the time is quicker to take public transportation due to the congestion issues. Cars don't scale.

If this isn't true then why the need for the charge then?

> Yes the point is to discourage people from driving into Lower Manhattan. Lower Manhattan is easily accessible by public transportation.

Only those who can't afford extra $15.

> The poverty rate for NYC is $35,000 if someone can afford to pay $24,000 yearly in parking I doubt they're in poverty

You are missing the point. Something like this is called wage slavery and many people are affected by it. They earn relatively a lot of money, but after spending on the necessities they have very little money on themselves. Someone can have a job that requires them to travel through the centre or actually park there and despite the high cost they can't afford to quit it because it is better to have some money than nothing. On paper they are doing well, but in reality they are miserable with no way out.