Central Park West Congestion Toll Devices Coming After Macy’s Parade

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY - Thanks to Snoopy, Upper West Side motorists will have to wait a bit longer for congestion pricing infrastructure to be installed on Central Park West and 60th Street, MTA officials said.

Contractors for the transit authority will stall the installation of toll infrastructure until after Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade due to predicted complications with the parade's iconic towering balloons, an MTA spokesperson told Patch.

An exact date for when the tolling equipment will be installed after the parade was not immediately available, but the spokesperson said the infrastructure will be temporarily removed for future parades. The cost of the temporary removal is already included in the MTA’s $507 million contract, which also includes equipment maintenance.

The news was first reported by the West Side Rag.

“The parade-day treatment for central business district tolling equipment in future years would be no different than other street infrastructure that’s removed as the parade starts and replaced as the parade ends, like traffic lights,” MTA Spokesperson Aaron Donovan said. “The City already undertakes similar parade preparations, overseeing the removal and reinstallation of streetscape items like streetlights, signage, and street furniture to facilitate parade operations.”

Congestion pricing infrastructure south of 60th Street, designed to help raise money for MTA upgrades, have already been installed in parts of the city such as West 61st Street and West End Avenue and West 60th Street and Broadway.

The tolling equipment is planned for nearly every intersection along 60th Street, according to MTA documents, as well as areas around the Lincoln, Hugh L. Carey and Holland tunnels.

Daily pricing is slated to range from $9 to 23 at roughly 120 detection sites once the tolls go into effect around Spring 2024.