This was proposed by the head of the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Janno Lieber recent high-profile subway attacks have “got into people’s heads” to make them feel that the subway system is not safe.
Lieber spoke to Bloomber News podcast “Bloomberg Talks” on Monday to discuss a new “congestion pricing” plan that would cost drivers $9 to cross under Central Park or enter Lower Manhattan from Brooklyn and New Jersey.
The purpose of the plan is to encourage New Yorkers use public transport. However, confidence in mass transit, Lieber agreed, was shaken after the attack on the subway system.
MTA Chairman Janno Lieber defended a new congestion pricing plan that will encourage New Yorkers to use public transit. (Getty)
Still, Lieber argued that crime is down, suggesting that recent viral incidents are giving people the impression that they are feeling unsafe.
“The overall statistics are positive,” Lieber said. “We actually had 12.5% less crime last year than in 2019, the last year before COVID. But there’s no doubt that some of these high-profile incidents, you know, the terrible attacks, got into people’s heads and made the whole system feels less safe.”
Lieber acknowledged that the justice system “has to do its job” to ensure that people who “have long rap sheets are locked up.”
Several high-profile crimes have occurred in New York’s subway systems. (Luiz C. Ribeiro/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Still, he insisted: “They are a very, very small number of these people, but they affect people’s sense of safety. And we have to deal with them in a way that protects drivers and the public.”
The congestion pricing plan went into effect shortly after the high-profile case of the alleged illegal immigrant setting the woman on fire in the New York subway system last month.
Recently, a man was charged with attempted murder after an alleged push man on the New York subway tracks.
It also follows high-profile the trial of ex-Marine Daniel Pennywho was indicted but found not guilty by a jury for his actions in defending a subway passenger in 2023 against a mentally unstable homeless man named Jordan Neely, who later died.
HOCHUL’S CHRISTMAS BRAGS ABOUT SAFER UNDERGROUND CAME AMID SPREAD OF ALARMING VIOLENT ATTACKS
New York Governor Kathy Hochul said safety measures are in place to protect New Yorkers on the subway. (AP)
In response to the wave of violent crimes, Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul deployed 1,000 National Guard members to patrol the subway system and directed the MTA to install security cameras in subway cars.
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