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A million cars have disappeared: What NYC is like after one month of
congestion pricing

Congestion pricing began on January 5. One month in, traffic is down,
public buses are faster, and transit ridership is up.
A million cars have disappeared: What NYC is like after one month of
congestion pricing

[Photos: Selcuk Acar/Anadolu/Getty Images, Lokman Vural
Elibol/Anadolu/Getty Images]

BY Kristin Toussaint
4 minute read

New York City�s congestion pricing program has been in place for one
month, implementing tolls on drivers who enter certain, often gridlocked,
areas of Manhattan. And so far, the results are �undeniably positive,�
transit officials say, with measurably reduced traffic and more commuters choosing public transit.

The traffic mitigation plan covers a �congestion relief zone� that spans
almost all of Manhattan below 60th street and includes major routes like
the Lincoln, Holland, and Hugh L. Carey Tunnels and bridges that go into
both Brooklyn and Queens. Since its launch on January 5, one million
fewer vehicles have entered that zone than they would have without the
toll, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA).
How does congestion pricing work?

Passenger cars with an E-ZPass that travel through that zone face a $9
toll during peak hours, from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. to 9
p.m. on weekends, and a $2.25 toll overnight. Tolls are more expensive
for commercial traffic, and vehicles without E-ZPass face a 50% premium.

Those charges are meant to reduce traffic in the city and also raise
funds for $15 billion worth of transit repairs to the MTA. By cutting
traffic and ushering more commuters onto public transit, the program will
also reduce air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.
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It�s the first such plan in the United States, though congestion pricing
has been successfully used in London, Stockholm, Singapore, and other
cities. In Stockholm, traffic levels dropped about 25%, and the city saw
less pollution and more investment in local infrastructure. And though
business owners and residents there criticized the program before its
pilot began�much like they did in New York�a majority of voters ended up
making that toll permanent.
Faster trips, more bus riders

New Yorkers are already seeing an impact one month in. Along with fewer
drivers in general, the vehicles that still travel through the area are
dealing with less traffic. Those crossing through the Holland Tunnel see
the most time savings, with average trip times down 48% during peak
morning hours. The Williamsburg and Queensboro Bridges are both seeing an average of 30% faster travel times. During afternoon peak hours, drivers
in the entire zone are seeing travel times drop up to 59%.

More commuters are opting for buses to cross Manhattan, and those buses
are now traveling more quickly, too. Weekday bus ridership has grown 6%,
while weekend ridership is up 21%, compared to January 2024. (Subway
ridership has also grown by 7.3% on weekdays and 12% on weekends, part of
a larger trend in ridership growth happening since the fall, per the MTA. Anecdotally, some subway riders have said they�ve seen more packed trains
on their morning commutes.) Buses entering Manhattan from Queens, Staten Island, and the Bronx are saving up to 10 minutes on their route times,
which also makes their arrivals more reliable.

This data comes from the MTA, which released figures at the end of
January. A full one-month update won�t be available until the next MTA
board meeting at the end of February; the MTA didn�t yet release any information on the amount of money the program has raised or any air
quality impacts. (When it comes to air quality, some groups have raised
alarms about how congestion pricing is moving traffic and its associated
air pollution to poorer neighborhoods, like the South Bronx.) But it
shows a trend, and the traffic impacts are supported by other data, like
from the Congestion Price Tracker run by two Brown University students,
Joshua Moshes and Benjamin Moshes.

Driving from Hell�s Kitchen to Midtown East at 5:30 p.m. on a weekday
took about 25 minutes on average before congestion pricing, per that
tracker. This week, it�s just 15 minutes. Traveling through the Holland
Tunnel at 7 a.m. on a Monday once took 23 minutes on average, compared to
14 minutes this week. Some routes, though, like Greenwich Village to
Alphabet City within Manhattan are trending �almost identically� to their pre-congestion pricing patterns. There are also �spillover routes� like
Park Slope to Dumbo�two Brooklyn neighborhoods entirely outside of the congestion relief zone�that are seeing travel times down by about five
minutes or less at various times of the day, though the tracker notes
that the program�s effect on these routes isn�t yet fully clear.

One month of data, though, isn�t enough to judge long-term impacts,
Moshes told Fast Company. �People�s behavior may change with time. We
will keep watching the data to see if things change.� The future of
congestion pricing is under threat by President Donald Trump, who is considering halting the program. (A poll by Morning Consult this week
found that 59% of voters say Trump should allow it to continue. Another
poll, though, revealed that support is still split, with a majority of
drivers against it and a majority of pedestrians, bikers, and transit
riders in support.)

For right now, at least, congestion pricing is having an immediate impact
for commuters. Daniel A. Zarrilli, the chief climate and sustainability
officer at Columbia University, shared his firsthand experience on X on
January 29: �Tonight: 24 minutes from City Hall to Staten Island by
express bus during the evening commute,� he wrote. �That�s gotta be a
record.� A caller to WNYC�s The Brian Lehrer Show earlier in January told
the host that his wife, who takes an express bus from Bay Ridge,
Brooklyn, to Lower Manhattan and back for work, has seen fewer delays
every day. �She�s getting home earlier every night,� he said. �I mean, we
love it.�

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