[adgjlsfhk1]

The key point is that traffic is basically exponential in number of cars. Roads have a capacity below which there's almost no traffic, and above which capacity stays constant (or goes down). The amount of traffic in a city without congestion charging is the amount caused by the last couple percent of drivers most willing to wait in traffic. By introducing a fee that switches the decision for that small group of people, everyone else's commute gets a noticeably shorter (including all the people that were taking the bus previously).

[nomel]

Yes, by dramatically increasing the commute time of the poor, we can reduce the commute time of the wealthier, and give the city revenue in the process. Morals aside, this is the desired function of the fee. Morals in place, I think making B39 free, funded by the fee, would have been a nice move.

[Ajedi32]

> I think making B39 free, funded by the fee

Where exactly are these congestion fees going, if not to funding transit?

[nomel]

> The MTA is using the revenue from the congestion pricing tolls to issue a $15 billion bond to buy new train cars, install accessible elevators at subway stations across the city and other transit infrastructure improvements.

It's funding hardware. My point is that a free (or discounted), short, B39 commute across the bridge would have been a nice bone to throw to the poorer people who made this traffic flow improvement possible for the wealthier.