New York City’s congestion pricing program has been in effect for just over a week, and the MTA has released initial data showing a reduction in the number of vehicles entering Manhattan’s Central Business District (CBD), along with an overall decline in traffic levels.

“If you average out the number of entries made into the CBD last week from Monday to Friday, 7.5% fewer vehicles entered,” said Juliette Michaelson, the MTA’s deputy chief of policy and external relations, during a press conference.

The program, the first of its kind in the United States, began on January 5. It imposes a $9 toll on most drivers entering Manhattan below 60th Street during peak hours. According to the MTA, approximately 273,000 fewer cars entered the toll zone during the initial workweek following the program’s launch.

Commuting times between Manhattan and New Jersey via the George Washington Bridge, Lincoln Tunnel, and Holland Tunnel have dropped by 30% to 40%, based on MTA data. The most noticeable improvements occurred during morning and afternoon rush hours, particularly at inbound river crossings.

TRANSCOM data from January 8 indicates a 39% reduction in travel times for nearly all morning crossings between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m. compared to the same day in 2024. Afternoon travel on east-west streets also saw significant improvements, with time reductions ranging from 6% to 36% during the 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. peak.

“The early data backs up what New Yorkers have been telling us all week—traffic is down, the streets feel safer, and buses are moving faster,” said MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber. “Positive change wasn’t guaranteed, and it’s exciting to hear commuters—including drivers—talking about how much time they are saving since the program kicked off a week ago.”

Buses experienced faster travel times during the program’s first week, with routes crossing the East and Hudson Rivers showing the most improvement. The MTA noted that the toll may have prompted some drivers to switch to public transit, though it is too early to quantify the impact given the large scale of the transit system, which already serves the majority of Manhattan-bound commuters. However, bus ridership in neighborhoods with higher concentrations of drivers appears to have risen.

“Bus ridership has seen the strongest comeback since the pandemic and now we’re seeing slight ridership increases on express bus routes, which goes to show how integral buses are to New York’s transit system,” said NYC Transit senior vice president of buses Frank Annicaro. “Less cars on the road improves bus service reliability for the hundreds of thousands of riders that rely on bus service every day.”

Subway ridership also showed a modest increase compared to the same period last year. Last week, an average of 3.7 million passengers used the subway from Monday through Thursday, up from 3.47 million during the same weekdays in 2024.

The heads of the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad, Rob Free and Catherine Rinaldi, respectively, highlighted their systems’ record-breaking on-time performances—95.65% and 98%—and encouraged drivers to switch to public transit to sustain the positive outcomes of congestion pricing.

Although the program charges different toll amounts for various types of vehicles, the MTA has not yet determined how much revenue the initiative has generated for the agency.

Meanwhile, Staten Island and Brooklyn Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, a Republican, is campaigning against congestion pricing. Over the weekend, she and other GOP leaders met with President-elect Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago to discuss the policy. Malliotakis is pushing for federal intervention to overturn the tolling system.

“President Trump understands how congestion pricing will negatively impact New York City’s economy and the middle-class families we represent,” Malliotakis told 1010 WINS on Sunday. “He wants to try to fix it from the federal level because our governor refuses to stop it.”

{Matzav.com}