Next year, congestion pricing is coming to New York City. And maybe, just maybe, the toll for motor vehicles entering the lower half of Manhattan should be set at $100.

That number comes from Charles Komanoff, an environmental activist, a transit analyst, and a local political fixture. It represents neither the amount that would maximize revenue nor the amount that would minimize traffic. Rather, it is an estimate of how much it really costs for a single vehicle to take a trip into the congestion zone—in economists’ terminology, the unpriced externality associated with driving into one of the most financially productive and eternally gridlocked places on Earth.

This number comes just from calculating the monetary value of the average delay incurred by each car’s contribution to traffic, not even accounting for all the other negative externalities – e.g., air pollution, sound pollution, injuries, deaths, etc. – meaning this is probably a sever underestimate.

Non-paywall link: https://archive.ph/LSpi5