Early data for New York’s new congestion charge program shows congestion eased in its first week as fewer drivers entered downtown Manhattan, although traffic remains heavy in parts of the charge zone.
In the first six days of the program, officials estimated, there were tens of thousands fewer vehicles entering the busiest parts of Manhattan below 60th Street, which include some of the city’s most famous destinations like Times Square, the Empire State Building and the High Line. .
Congestion pricing aims to entice people out of their cars and onto mass transit. Most passenger cars are now charged $9 per day to enter the toll zone during peak hours, with additional fees for trucks and other vehicles, as well as overnight discounts.
The program started on Sunday, which usually has light traffic, but the real test came the next day as many workers returned after the holidays. Average weekday ridership in the zone and the freeways surrounding it fell 7.5 percent compared to the average weekday estimate in January before the program, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. On Sunday, admissions were down about 18.5 percent compared to the same baseline.
“There’s so much evidence that people are experiencing an environment with a lot less traffic,” said Janno Lieber, president and chief executive officer of the MTA, which oversees the program. “They see streets that move more efficiently, hear less noise and feel a less tense environment around tunnels and bridges.”
The drop in traffic represented an average of 43,800 fewer vehicles per day, or 219,000 fewer vehicles per week, entering the zone and surrounding highways, according to the authority, which calculated the estimates using data from previous years. Traffic was lightest early in the week as cold weather settled into the city, but gradually picked up throughout the week, following typical traffic trends.
With only a week’s worth of data, it’s too early to know definitively if the program is working. MTA officials said the data is preliminary and reflects the very early days of the major policy change. There is no historical data on the number of vehicles entering the zone per day before the program, so perfect comparisons are not yet possible. The numbers provided by the MTA are calculated on a small sample with many variables that have not been thoroughly studied.
It’s also unclear how much driver behavior may be directly related to congestion pricing or other factors such as the sub-zero temperatures that gripped the city when the tolls began on Jan. 5, likely keeping many drivers at home.
Still, the data released by the MTA is the first solid evidence that the congestion pricing plan, the first of its kind in the nation, is off to a promising start toward its ambitious goal of reducing congestion. The program also aims to raise much-needed funds to improve transportation.
Congestion charging opponents argued that the tolling program would do little to reduce traffic while penalizing drivers outside of Manhattan, many of whom lack convenient and reliable transportation options. These critics called it a cash grab by a transportation agency with a history of financial problems.
Samuel I. Schwartz, a former city transportation commissioner who supports congestion pricing, said the first week was a crucial test. “New York is a tough city,” he said. “Any show that opens and is followed the first week usually closes. We survived the first week.”
Before the tolls were implemented, MTA officials predicted that traffic in the congestion zone would decrease by about 13 percent over the course of a year.
The data appears to confirm what some New Yorkers said they’ve already noticed: fewer traffic jams, less honking and more curbside parking on some blocks in and near the congestion charge zone.
Traffic moved faster through most of the major bridges and tunnels that connect Manhattan to other boroughs and surrounding suburbs, according to the MTA. On Thursday, vehicles traveling westbound on the Williamsburg Bridge were traveling 45 percent faster than on Thursdays last January.
Some drivers and bus drivers have already seen shorter commutes. Josh Castro, 28, a construction project manager from Montclair, N.J., usually takes an hour and 15 minutes to get to the parking garage on East 63rd Street through the Lincoln Tunnel. Last Monday, he did it in just 40 minutes, he said.
But Tony O’Reilly, 62, who takes the bus twice a week from Freehold, N.J., said Thursday he’s skeptical the cleaner roads will last. “Now it’s just quiet because it’s after the holidays and it’s cold outside,” he said.
Traffic improved along some streets within the congestion zone, but remained congested in other areas such as the stretch of West 42nd Street and Ninth Avenue between West 60th and 14th Streets.
It is not clear whether more riders have turned to the city’s subway system and local buses. Ridership on the transit system has increased by about 6 percent over the past year as the city recovers from a sharp drop in ridership during the worst of the coronavirus pandemic.
The MTA’s Express buses, however, saw a significant increase in ridership last week. Buses were able to shorten commuting times and raced over bridges and tunnels. The number of passengers increased by 6 percent compared to January 2024, from 67,000 to 71,000.
The SIM24 bus, which connects Staten Island to Manhattan, saved seven minutes on its trip through the Lincoln Tunnel compared to last year. On the entire route, the bus had a reduction in travel time of almost four minutes.
Buses crossing the East or Hudson rivers into Manhattan saw similar gains, particularly during the morning rush hour. The B39, which often gets stuck in traffic on the Williamsburg Bridge as vehicles line up to get to Manhattan, had travel speeds that were nearly four minutes shorter than last year, a 28 percent reduction in travel time.
Transit officials said subway and bus ridership totals are unlikely to immediately reflect any significant changes related to congestion pricing because the number of people who typically ride in the zone is smaller than those who use mass transit.
Of the 1.5 million people who work in the toll zone, about 85 percent take public transit, according to the MTA. Only 11 percent drive — about 143,000 drivers before congestion pricing was introduced.
New Jersey Transit officials said they didn’t see a significant increase in transit ridership last week, but noted that “it’s too early to see how travel trends might change due to congestion pricing just days after implementation.”
Michael Ostrovsky, a professor at Stanford University who studies congestion pricing, said the early statistics are encouraging and could offer lessons for other American cities looking to reduce traffic and expand mass transit options. Mr Ostrovsky said there was likely to be less traffic improvement on local roads as Ubers, taxis and commercial trucks still circulate within the toll zone.
“The results show that congestion pricing can be very effective,” Ostrovsky said.
The new $9 toll has already made some drivers think twice about entering the city.
Cleber Lliguicoda, 48, a construction worker from Hackensack, NJ, usually commutes to work in Manhattan. But on Thursday, he and a work colleague arrived by bus. “It’s very expensive to come to work now,” he said. “My boss doesn’t cover it, so we’re taking the bus.”
Ivan Ortiz, 43, a sanitation worker in Weehawken, said he will now ask his relatives in Manhattan and Queens to visit him in New Jersey.
“That’s why I will go to the city less,” he said. “But you know what, hopefully it will ease the traffic and everyone will start hopping on buses and trains. I’m a glass half full.”
Sean Piccoli, Makaelah Walters and Wesley Parnell contributed reporting.
