Congestion pricing may soon become a reality in Manhattan now that the federal government has taken a major step towards approving the controversial tolling system.

Cars entering Manhattan below 60th Street will be charged a fee, but exactly what that pay structure will look like remains a mystery.

Congestion pricing could be up and running in Manhattan as early as next March now that the federal government has all but signed off on the plan.

While additional steps are still needed, the most significant hurdles have now been cleared.

“I think we are going to see this happen very quickly,” Julie Tighe of the New York League of Conservation Voters said. “We know there is one more legal step where they have to put out the finding of no significant impact [document], meaning any potential impacts to the environment will be mitigated.”

Source says final approval of congestion pricing is imminent. The Federal Highway Administration just issued the letter of legal sufficiency to the MTA. That means a Finding of No Significance ( FONSI ) will come shortly as part of final environmental review and approval.

— Zack Fink (@ZackFinkNews) May 5, 2023

The controversial plan to charge drivers a fee to enter Manhattan passed in the state legislature four years ago. But the program has since faced significant delays, and opponents say it remains very unpopular in boroughs outside Manhattan.

“This bill would not have passed on its own if Governor [Andrew Cuomo] hadn’t put it but on the budget in 2019,” Democratic Assemblyman David Weprin of Queens said. “It did not have the votes on its own.”

According to critics, tolling cars amounts to a regressive tax, hitting those who can least afford it the hardest.

“Many people who live in transit deserts, like part of my Assembly district in eastern Queens, feel they have no other option when they have to go into midtown Manhattan than to drive their cars,” Weprin said.

But supporters say it’s a win for the environment because it will get more polluting cars and trucks off the road. And it’s a boon for mass transportation since the estimated $1 billion raised per year from the pricing system will go to the MTA.

Who will pay the most, and who will be exempted has yet to be worked out.

“The Traffic Review and Mobility Board has to determine what the fees are going to be,” Tighe said. “And then we will really see what this is going to look like. In our opinion, we need to minimize the number of exemptions.”

And these exemptions could end up being the key to how successful the program is. That will also determine how much money the MTA winds up getting from it each year.