Congestion Indigestion: NYC Congestion Pricing Plan Gets Tensions Rising
I’ve done you a solid by writing this primer on the plan that goes into effect on January 5th, 2025, with a wild history of technology that involves a Russian spy, interracial marriage, rocket science, Albert Einstein, and Nobel Prizes.
So boom, check it, let's talk about how we got here in the first place because it’s nuts.
The Theremin, Interracial Marriage in the 1930s, and Russian Spies
Emotions related to EZ-Pass can be summed up by the two fists of Radio Raheem in Spike Lee’s Do The Right Thing, because it’s either Love or Hate for the electronic tolling device currently found in many vehicles on the Eastern Seaboard that's part of the E Zpass Group
The Fons et origo lies in Russia with physicist Leon Theremin, inventor of the self-named Theremin, an early electronic instrument that manipulates electromagnetic fields to produce sound. It’s played by “not” touching it. Instead, the theremin player makes hand motions, like the conductor of an invisible choir, and the device hums, moans, and sings.
The invention is commonly referred to as the first mass-produced instrument and has been used by Hollywood to create eerie sounds for a creepy and sinister effect.
Many consider Theremin to be the forebearer of electronic dance music (EDM). The instrument inspired Robert Moog to build his own Theremin from a hobbyist magazine in 1949. Moog went on to change electronic music when he debuted the first commercial modern synthesizer in 1964.
According to Discover Magazine:
"The instrument became the forerunner of modern synthesizers and had an indelible influence on the soundscapes of classic science fiction. Echoes of Theremin’s futuristic sounds appear everywhere, from the classic synth tones of ’90s-era G-funk to U.K. house music."
It's fitting that the architect of what we know as G-Funk is also a Dr., since Dre is like a scientist in the studio.
The “instrument” was a sensation, and Theremin was invited to NYC to showcase it since he couldn’t go live on Instagram in the 1920s. Vladimir Lenin obliged, dispatching the scientist to NYC, where he played the instrument for high society at Carnegie Hall, the NY Philharmonic, and the Metropolitan Opera House.
This was a time when there were still White guys named Leon, which is resoundingly a Black name today. However, Leon also came with secret instructions to conduct industrial espionage on behalf of Russia.
Living a double life, Leon was on the cusp of science and music, living at The Plaza Hotel, and later renting a a couple of floors in a townhouse at 37 West 54th Street, hobnobbing with elites and even renting a studio to Albert Einstein who was interested in the fantastical Theremin instrument.
Leon Theremin racked up debts in New York City when his get-rich-quick plan for the musical instrument hit rough waters. He didn’t account for the difficulty of people learning to play the Theremin, nor did he account for RCA pricing it at $220, a huge sum in 1929 when radios cost $30.
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| The Theremin |
Add the 1929 stock market crash, and getting rich was a wrap, but getting married was still in the cards after Theremin found love with ballet dancer Lavinia Williams.
It’s debatable which was more shocking in 1938; a Russian scientist married to a Black ballerina or the sight of a dancer playing an instrument with her body, which Williams did with a Theremin invention called the Terpsitone. It was a movement-controlled instrument using the same capacitance principles of the Theremin, where a dancer's body creates the sound.
Theremin claimed the marriage put him deeper in debt since bankers, who were already turning him down for loans, closed the coffers tighter because of his marriage to a Black woman. So Leon did what many men do when faced with deep financial woes and marriage issues…he bounced, leaving his wife, life, and debt in NYC.
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| Lavinia Willams |
The winds of change blew Leon into a Russian gulag as a counter-revolutionary when he returned home during Joseph Stalin’s Great Purge of 1937, even though Lenin sent him to New York City in 1927 to do industrial espionage for Russia.
The concept of this invention led to the creation of Theremin's Thing following the Second World War.
While in a science prison in Russia, he created a spy tool called The Thing. It was a listening device hidden in a great seal of the United States, presented to Averell Harriman, the American Ambassador to the Soviet Union, by the Young Pioneer Organization of the Soviet Union in 1945.
Since "The Thing" didn't have a power source, it was difficult to detect when American officials swept the house for bugs and sat in Harriman's home office, transmitting secret conversations to the Russians until 1951.
Is Brooklyn In The House
Fast forward to the 1960s and Brooklyn is in the house via engineer Mario L. Cardullo. Cardullo was born in 1935 into a family of Sicilian immigrants in Brooklyn’s Park Slope, then a working-class Italian and Irish neighborhood. The Brooklyn Tech and Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn graduate (now known as the New York University Tandon School of Engineering) was working for Bell Labs when happenstance struck on a flight from St. Paul, Minneapolis to Washington D.C.
Cardullo happened to sit next to an IBM engineer who was tasked with developing technology to keep track of train cars and Cardullo quickly sketched out an idea.
He combined the one-directional, passive listening tech of Leon Teremin's spy bug, which only transmitted voices when triggered. He added “Friend Or Foe” technology from WWII and memory so that two devices could speak to each other, and viola; trackability was super simplified, and batteries or any other power source was not included because it was not needed.
This was the genesis of Radio Frequency Identification technology, which you’ve engaged with if you worked for Amazon to sort and track packages or if you’ve ever got caught stealing during your high school boosting phase. The sensor that went off as you tried to slip out of the store without paying is RFID in full effect. It uses radio waves to communicate, identify, and track objects wirelessly, making it a valuable tool for various applications, from supply chain management to access control.
RFID is also the basis for Near-Field-Communication, and both use short-range transmissions (from a touch to a few centimeters) that require the devices to be in close proximity. People use it daily for contactless payments, such as tapping smartphones on the subway or using Apple Pay to buy Cannabis at a NYC dispensary.
E ZPass, Congestion Pricing, and Donald Trump
RFID trackability is the essence of electronic toll booths and Congestion Pricing. Mario Cardullo is considered the father of E ZPass, and he received the first patent for RFID-like technology. In 1983, the first patent to use the RFID acronym was granted to Charles Walton, who pitched the technology to transportation authorities for Electronic toll booths, but he couldn't find any takers.
The game changed when New York, NJ, and Pennsylvania implemented EZ-Pass in 1995. It sped up interstate travel while reducing toll-booth clerks and traffic congestion at toll plazas. E-ZPass contributed to cleaner air by decreasing idling and lowering vehicle emissions by minimizing stop-and-go traffic.
William Vickrey first proposed congestion pricing for the NYC subway system, which the city balked at. Vickrey then suggested applying the concept to NYC roads, which was also balked at. The Nobel prize-winning scientist dropped dead on October 11th, 1959, three days after winning the award, and never saw his idea reach the light. Congestion Pricing wasn't feasible until the adoption of RFID, and the topic was a political football in NYC for many years. But like the NY Jets, no one could get the football over the goal line until recently.
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| William Vickrey |
Now, the convergence of Leon Theremin, Mario Cardullo, and William Vickrey will emerge on January 5th, 2025, when Congestion Pricing begins in NYC. It was dead in the water until (then) NY Governor Andrew Cuomo revisited it after the “Summer Of Hell” in 2017. Reviving congestion pricing creates a potential showdown with President-elect Donald Trump, who has previously threatened to terminate the plan once he returns to the Oval Office.
The plan will have a residual, domino effect on Harlem and Brooklyn, with drivers avoiding the congestion zone and using adjacent neighborhoods to park and ride into the zone.
Charges at E-ZPass rates from 2025 to 2027:
•$9 will be charged once daily for passenger vehicles and passenger vehicles with commercial license plates entering the zone during peak hours, between 5 a.m. and 9 p.m. on weekdays and from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekends.
•Passenger vehicles and passenger vehicles with commercial license plates, that enter the zone during off-peak hours, will be charged $2.25.
•Depending on size, $14.40 or $21.60 will be charged to trucks and buses entering the zone during peak hours.
•Trucks and buses, depending on their size, will be charged $3.60 or $5.40 to enter the zone during off-peak hours.
•$4.50 will be charged to motorcycles to enter the zone during peak hours.
•$1.05 will be charged for motorcycles to enter the zone during off-peak hours.
•$0.75 will be added to each paid passenger trip for trips to, from, within, or through the zone using a taxi, green cab, or for-hire vehicle.
•$1.50 will be added to each paid passenger trip for trips to, from, within, or through the zone using a high-volume for-hire vehicle or app-based service, such as Uber and Lyft.
•Vehicles that receive tolls by mail will pay 50% more than the E-ZPass rates.
Value projections of the congestion plan have pegged it at $15 Billion in revenue for the MTA to fund system improvements, but at what cost? That’s to be decided, but regardless, if you don’t have E ZPass in your car and plan to drive into the congestion zone, you need to get it. Without E ZPass, your vehicle will be hit with a 50% surcharge, making your trip $13.50 during peak and $3.30 overnight. If you want to throw your money away, don't do it on E ZPass, just cop me a Theremin and watch me work.
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