New Yorkers grumbled when the fees arrived, but the numbers suggest they may be grumbling in faster traffic. A year into Manhattan's congestion pricing program—tolls of up to $9 for most vehicles driving on surface streets below 60th Street during peak travel windows—the New York Times reports that daily traffic in the core business district is down 11%. That's roughly 73,000 fewer vehicles a day, or about 27 million trips that didn't happen over the course of the first year, in what was dubbed the "Congestion Relief Zone" and enforced by more than 1,400 license-plate cameras, per Futurism.
With fewer cars, travel speeds inside the zone rose 4.5%, compared with a 1.4% boost in the rest of the city, per the Times. Bus riders saw gains, too: Local bus speeds climbed 2.4% in the zone and 0.8% elsewhere in the city. Drivers using key routes into Manhattan saw some of the biggest changes. Average speeds through the Lincoln Tunnel were up nearly 25%, while traffic through the Holland Tunnel moved 51% faster than before the policy took effect on Jan. 5, 2025. "It turns out that mostly when people say 'New York is noisy' they really mean 'cars are noisy,'" says one Manhattan resident.
City officials also point to potentially cleaner air (results are so far inconclusive, but with hints of progress); safer streets for pedestrians, cyclists, and motorists; and more than $500 million raised for New York's struggling public-transit network. Some of the benefits even appear to reach beyond city limits: One resident of upstate New York's Kingston who "supercommutes" to New York by bus says his round trip is now 30 to 60 minutes quicker. The program originally drew heavy fire from drivers and political critics—including President Trump—before its launch, with warnings of chaos and unfair costs. "We're winning this battle one year into it," Gov. Kathy Hochul said Monday at a presser, per Gothamist.
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