For the past century—effectively, the age of the automobile—there’s really been no unique solution or system for managing or limiting traffic. Aside from a prohibition on right turns on red and honking, driving in America's densest nine square miles works the same way as in the other 3.8 million square miles. Because of this, each and every work day, some 140,000 commuters enter Manhattan by car, while about 1,000,000 people enter the commercial business district south of 60th street by automobile—largely for only the price of the gas it takes to get there, the toll to cross the bridge, and the cost of parking. All expenses that a rural American would scoff at, but expenses that hardly reflect the shared cost that cars create in the US’s most densely populated environment—from air quality and pedestrian danger, to simple quality of life. The result is this: New York’s #1 standing in Inrix’s 2023 congestion impact ranking.
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