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New York Governor Touted Congestion Pricing Results During Friday Meeting With Trump
The Hill reports, New York Governor Kathy Hochul (D) revealed Sunday that she recently had another discussion about MTA congestion pricing with President Trump. Hochul used a Friday, March 14, White House meeting about an energy pipeline project as an opportunity to present Trump with data showing the tolling program is effective in reducing Manhattan congestion. She also tried to allay concerns that tolling will have an adverse economic impact on the city.
“I don’t want to get into private conversations, but I spent an enormous amount of my time in there talking about how congestion pricing is working,” Hochul said during a television interview. “It really is working.” The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
House Democrats Demand USDOT Disclose Work Force Reduction Information
Democratic members of the US House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee are demanding that USDOT be more transparent about the February discharge of probationary employees — an action later deemed illegal in federal court — and the recent departure of some key career civil servants. In a letter to Secretary Sean Duffy sent last week, the committee’s minority members stated that the “indiscriminate firing of probationary employees . . . created uncertainty and strain on DOT employees” and warned that the administration’s workforce reduction policies could “jeopardize the stability and safety of our transportation system or the federal-state-local partnership model of building infrastructure.”
The letter reiterated a previous unfulfilled request for details about the status and impact of reductions in force, information members say they need to fulfill their oversight responsibility and “answer our constituents and transportation stakeholders in our districts who reach out regularly with questions” about USDOT policy changes and plans.
Oklahoma Turnpike Opens New Claremore Interchange
The Oklahoma Turnpike Authority (OTA) announced the opening last Thursday morning, March 13, of a new Will Rogers Turnpike (I-44) interchange near Claremore, the second interchange completed since the authority’s conversion to cashless tolling. The facility located at Flint Road-East 510 Road (mile marker 252) was built as part of a $64 million OTA-Oklahoma DOT project to realign SH-20. The new highway alignment is still under construction but is expected to open later this spring. “Motorists coming from Tulsa and Claremore in a 2-axle vehicle will pay a 66-cent toll at the Flint Rd. exit.”
OTA notes that the conversion to all-electronic tolling is allowing it to “add new interchanges to communities for the first time since the inception of Oklahoma’s turnpikes in 1953.”
Texas Bill Would Authorize Municipal Closure Of Any Toll Road In Unsafe Condition
Texas House Bill 5376, known as Tiffany’s Law, is named after a victim of the 2021 pileup on the I-35 West segment operated by NTE Mobility Partners (NTE). According to The Dallas Morning News, the legislation “would allow any municipality across the state to restrict the use of a toll road within city limits when it deems conditions on the stretch of highway are unsafe for motorists.”
The 2021 crash followed a day and a half of freezing temperatures and fluctuating precipitation in Dallas-Fort Worth. A 2024 Morning News investigative report claimed decision-making by NTE and lack of oversight by TxDOT contributed to the crash, which involved more than 130 vehicles and multiple fatalities. A lawsuit brought by survivors is scheduled to start this summer.
HB 5376 is one of at least 19 bills that have been filed this year by lawmakers seeking to change various aspects of state toll road policy. The sponsor, Representative Ramon Romero (D-90), says NTE has been unwilling to address concerns about I-35 W design that he has raised.
Asked to comment on Romero’s bill, NTE said it hadn’t had time to conduct a review.