Sigh, mass transit will benefit you as well, it means that more people will use it rather than taking the car, thus reducing traffic in general.

Taxes are also often used to change behaviors in the population, by adding taxes like these, cities have been known to try and reduce pollution and congestion making the area less harmful.

TL;DR: Congestion charges are annoying, but in the end will benefit you as well.

You live in literally the best transit area in the entire nation. One of the best in the world.

Take Transit. You are lucky enough to be in one of the areas where you aren't forced to drive. You are incredibly privileged to live there, and are able to take transit to pretty much wherever you like.

Plus it's lower Manhattan. You said you live inside the congestion zone, which means lets be real, this is a drop in the bucket compared to actually driving there. Just your car you probably pay for storage, some of the highest gas in the country, and the highest insurance in the country, and you're still complaining that there's a slight tax now because you are choosing not to take the incredibly convenient, regular, and world renown subway system?

You're costing society by driving your private vehicle at all let alone in downtown manhattan. The least you could do for all of the lung cancer, asthma, and road fatalities you're contributing to is pay some money.

Protip: You could avoid the $9 toll by using the mass transit.

More mass transit = fewer people in cars = better driving experience for people in cars (you).

I won't blame you for preferring to drive a car; the US is practically built for cars, and even what little public transit you have access to is of poor quality compared to what you can find in the likes of Germany and Hong Kong. And people love to complain about Germany's Deutsche Bahn.

NYC is trying to solve the issue of traffic congestion. You're stuck in that rush hour traffic? Sorry, but you are the traffic. Deterring drivers from driving into the city is the whole point. It is supposed to suck for you, but it will make the locals happier since they'd have less noise pollution, air pollution, more walkable areas, and faster emergency response times.

I believe OP is talking about NYC's Congestion Pricing.

good

I once knew someone who commuted into NYC each day by rail -- drove to the train station, and went from there. Can move out of NYC and commute in, I suppose. Housing will probably be cheaper. Was a long commute.

that feels really unfair to me.

Well, I mean, the real limited resource that they're charging for is gonna be the available road space, as they're going to be trying to reduce traffic load, I expect, as the road network is just overloaded. I don't know if there'd be a realistic alternative to provide much more road space in Manhattan with the funds. Like, where would you put it? They'd have to bulldoze tall buildings or something.