District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser on Tuesday criticized the city’s congestion pricing proposal, calling it “deeply flawed.”
The study’s release was delayed several years after its completion in 2021, but was published by Bowser this week. She described the “congestion pricing tax scheme,” which includes a proposed $10 charge for people entering the city, as a “bad idea” and noted that it relied on traffic data from before the COVID-19 pandemic, which has proven to be “dramatically disconnected from the city’s post-pandemic realities.”
“By releasing this report, I hope Council will move on to more serious conversations about how we can strengthen, not weaken, the District’s downtown core,” Bowser wrote in a letter to Council Chairman Phil Mendelson.
While Bowser is adamantly opposed to the idea, councilwoman and mayoral candidate Janeese Lewis George said she remained in favor of the proposal. George, a socialist, and Councilman at-Large Kenyan McDuffie, a more centrist candidate, are two of the most prominent names campaigning to succeed Bowser in the 2026 mayoral election.
In a post to X, George argued the study found “opportunities to reduce congestion, improve air quality & public health, & strengthen public transit for residents across the city.”
Bowser’s opposition stems from concerns that it would discourage people from coming into the city at a time when it has still not rebounded to pre-pandemic activity, in terms of office occupancy and foot traffic at local businesses. The mayor said Washington has one of the highest proportions of teleworkable jobs in the country, arguing that remote work has “fundamentally altered commuting patterns, and penalizing the people who do choose to come Downtown,” would further undermine the city’s health.
“Imposing a congestion tax would undermine our collective efforts to retain and attract residents, businesses, and tourists. Prospective commercial tenants already complain about the District’s parking cashout requirement as an impediment to leasing space in the city. Adding yet another charge to the cost of doing business in the city won’t make the District any more business-friendly,” she said.
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The mayor warned D.C. could not be compared to New York City, which recently approved a congestion pricing plan in which commuters who drive into the area between 5 a.m. and 9 p.m. are charged $9.
“The District of Columbia is not Midtown Manhattan. Our Downtown’s economic model, foot traffic patterns, building height limits, and sheer density are exponentially lower than Manhattan or London,” Bowser noted.
