Literally just keeping the poorer drivers off the road for the richer ones.

i'm going to remove your comment again because you're, again, talking completely out of your ass and asserting incorrect things with unearned confidence. at most, only half of all households in New York City own a car. the average car owner in NYC is a single-family homeowner who is twice as wealthy as someone who does not own a car. people who own cars in NYC literally are the wealthy--because the poor, supposedly plighted drivers you're appealing to don't actually drive in the first place, they just take the subway or ride in buses. they simply are not being "priced out of driving," however you think that works.

but even if somehow the poor were being pushed out (they're not)? good! cars suck, and our urban spaces should not cater to them whether they're driven by the rich or poor! less cars mean less air pollution, less microplastics, less ambient noise, and less traffic fatalities and injuries.

let me ask you: do you think it's bad that noise complaints are down 70% or that traffic injuries have been cut in half because of congestion pricing? do you think it's bad that buses--overwhelmingly servicing the city's poor--are faster across the city because of congestion pricing? do you think it's bad that bike lanes are being put in where car traffic has been cut significantly by congestion pricing? because i don't, and i think those benefit poor people--who mostly don't use cars and who are disproportionate victims of air pollution and traffic injuries and fatalities--a lot more than their potential ability to drive into lower Manhattan or whatever personal freedom you think you're valiantly defending here.