2019 New York Laws
VAT - Vehicle and Traffic
Title 8 - Respective Powers of State and Local Authorities
Article 44-C - Central Business District Tolling Program
1701 - Legislative Findings and Declaration.

§  1701. Legislative findings and declaration. The ongoing failures of
  the   tracks,   signals,   switches,   electrical   power,   and   other
  transportation  infrastructure  throughout the subway system in the city
  of New York continue to have a significant  deleterious  impact  on  the
  health,  safety,  and  livelihood  of  commuters, tourists, resident New
  Yorkers, as well as business and commerce in the  metropolitan  commuter
  transportation  district, which is the recognized economic engine of the
  state of New York, and thereby have adversely affected  the  economy  of
  the  state of New York. Temporary actions have been taken to address the
  safety of subway, bus  and  commuter  rail  riders  in  the  short  term
  including an emergency declaration and increased capital funding for the
  subways  in  the  most  recently  adopted state budget. The legislature,
  however,  determines  that  a  long-term  and  sustainable  solution  is
  necessary  in  order to ensure stable and reliable funding to repair and
  revitalize this significantly important mass transit asset.
The legislature further finds and declares that traffic congestion  in
  the  city  of  New  York  ranks  second worst among cities in the United
  States and third worst  among  cities  in  the  world,  and  results  in
  significant  cost  to the New York metropolitan area economy and in turn
  the state's economy at estimates exceeding one hundred  billion  dollars
  over  the  next  five  years.  Travel  speeds  in the city of New York's
  central business district have dropped more than  seventeen  percent  in
  two  thousand sixteen to an average of 6.8 miles per hour and in Midtown
  Manhattan, the most congested area of the city-the area from fifty-ninth
  street to  thirty-fifth  street  and  from  ninth  avenue  to  the  east
  river-the  average  vehicular speed is 4.7 miles per hour. Congestion in
  these areas is crippling and impacts the everyday  lives  of  residents,
  commuters,  taxi and for-hire vehicle traffic, bus transit and emergency
  services, and is a significant contributor to decreased air quality.
These issues have been recognized by both the Fix NYC  Advisory  Panel
  and the Metropolitan Transportation Sustainability Advisory Workgroup as
  significant impediments to everyday New Yorkers.
In order to ensure a safe and efficient mass transit system within the
  city  of  New  York  and  to protect the public health and safety of New
  York's residents, a program to establish tolls for vehicles entering  or
  remaining  in  the  most  congested  area  of  the  state is found to be
  necessary and to be a matter of substantial state concern.