They are the greatest losers under New York City’s congestion charges.
The city’s tangle of one-way streets, along with the MTA’s apparent poor design, forces these New Yorkers to pay the contentious $9 toll even if they are only driving off their block.
Residents and workers who use a parking garage on East 61st Street complained to The Post about having to pay the despised levy, which went into effect Sunday despite being one block north of Manhattan’s congestion tolling zone.
Because the 615 Garage exits into Fifth Avenue, a one-way street going south, cars who park there have little choice but to enter the expensive area, even if they wind up turning around and heading uptown.
“You have to drive past the congestion pricing to go around the block and to go back uptown for any reason, whether it be to go to work, whether it be to leave the city, whether it be to visit your children, or whether it be to get a haircut or anything else that you do uptown,” said Andrew Heiberger, who lives at the corner of East 61 as well as Fifth Avenue.
His premium building’s “unique location” — where the sole exit is onto Fifth Avenue and Central Park restricts westward traffic — basically means there is a toll right outside his front door that cannot be avoided.
“There should be something worked out where you are not charged the toll, regardless of whether you can afford the toll or not,” the governor told The Post on Monday.
Even before the $9 base tolls went into force on Sunday, scores of dissatisfied New Yorkers and motorists complained about the unfairness of congestion pricing.
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Since the scheme’s inception, locals have been concerned about toll-averse commuters turning neighborhoods into parking lots, businesses have imposed congestion pricing levies on customers, and a first responder organization has advised its members to avoid stations in the zone.
Proponents say that tolls will reduce traffic in Manhattan and improve mass transit, which Heiberger supports.
Heiberger described himself as a “big fan” of public transit, bus and bike lanes, and pedestrianization of Times Square.
He also stated that he would be willing to pay the $9 tolls merely to drive from his building, which is partially connected to the parking garage, but that doing so is illogical and unfair.
It is the same as putting a toll on a suburban street in the heart of a subdivision, so if you lived in one house and wanted to see your friends down the street in a cul-de-sac, you would have to pay to get from one to the other,” he said.
Juan Rios, 58, a private driver for a tenant in the fancy complex, said it was “crazy” to pay a toll simply to drive.
“It is not my car, but it is still crazy because every time you have to go you have to pay once a day,” explained the man.
David Delarosa, 50, a UPS employee who services the building, was even blunter.
“It sucks!” he exclaimed.
“If they park in this garage and wish to go north, they must go around, pay the toll, and return. “That is terrible.”
It is unclear whether the Metropolitan Transportation Authority considered the block’s unlucky geographical peculiarity when developing the congestion pricing plan as part of a state statute passed by then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo in 2019 and authorized by the federal government in 2023.
MTA representatives did not respond to a request for comment.