31°Good evening
The MTA says the reduced number of vehicles are resulting...

The MTA says the reduced number of vehicles are resulting in considerably faster travel times at river crossings into Manhattan in the morning and along several city streets in the evening. Credit: EPA-EFE / Shutterstock / Sarah Yenesel

About 30,000 fewer vehicles are entering Manhattan’s new tolling zone each weekday on average since New York enacted its congestion pricing program, according to new MTA figures.

The reduced number of vehicles is resulting in considerably faster travel times at river crossings into Manhattan in the morning and along several city streets in the evening peak, and may also be contributing to a rise in ridership at some Long Island Rail Road stations, Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials said Wednesday.

“What we studied, what we expected, what we planned for is what seems to be happening,” MTA deputy policy chief Juliette Michaelson said as she presented the data. “That is great news for the people who live here, people who work here, and even people who just visit occasionally.”

The new data came at the MTA Board’s first monthly meeting since the agency’s first-in-the-nation congestion price program took effect, charging most vehicles $9 for driving in Manhattan's central business district, defined as the area south of, and including, 60th Street.

According to traffic data compiled by the MTA and Transcom, a coalition of public agencies throughout the metropolitan area, about 553,000 vehicles have entered the business district on an average weekday since the new tolls took effect on Jan. 5. That includes about 63,000 vehicles that stayed on the FDR Drive and the West Side Highway, which are both excluded from the toll zone.

That’s 30,000 fewer vehicles than the 583,000 that have typically driven below 60th on an average January weekday in recent years, according to the MTA. It’s a decrease of about 5% — well below the 13% that Gov. Kathy Hochul has said New Yorkers could expect.

Addressing the lower-than-projected reduction in vehicles, MTA Chairman and CEO Janno Lieber cautioned against putting too much weight in figures computed "based on limited information." The "most relevant statistics," Lieber said, were those showing significant reductions in travel times.

The data compiled by the MTA between Jan. 5 and Jan. 25 show average weekday reductions in morning travel times on Hudson and East River crossings ranging from 10% to 48%. Trip times fell by 15% in the Queens-Midtown Tunnel, and by 30% on the Queensboro, Manhattan and Williamsburg bridges.

And the faster speeds extend even farther, according to the MTA. Along the three-mile stretch of the Long Island Expressway leading into the Queens-Midtown Tunnel, travel times fell by 5-9.5 minutes.

"You’re seeing such dramatic time savings and dramatic increases in speeds," Lieber told reporters at the MTA’s Manhattan headquarters Wednesday. "That is provable, lived experience. I’m not disappointed at all."

The results inside the tolled area in Manhattan were more mixed, with several east-west streets showing travel time improvements of 20-30%, but smaller improvements on north-south avenues.

MTA officials also pointed to recent increases in transit ridership as potential evidence of congestion pricing working as intended. The number of riders taking trains out of Ronkonkoma, Woodmere, Garden City, New Hyde Park and Douglaston are up between 18% and 26% compared with January 2024. That’s well above the 3% to 21% ridership increases the railroad saw at those stations in December, as compared with December 2023.

While congestion pricing supporters celebrated the new data, opponents suggested the released figures don’t capture some of the negative impacts of the new tolls. Addressing the board virtually before the meeting, Tommy Loeb, who lives on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, questioned why the MTA didn’t release data about changes in air quality in communities affected by rerouted traffic.

Loeb said MTA officials should not “cherry pick what meets their agenda, and not the agenda of those who are negatively impacted.”

Video Player is loading.
Current Time 0:00
Duration 0:00
Loaded: 0%
Stream Type LIVE
Remaining Time 0:00
 
1x
    • Chapters
    • descriptions off, selected
    • captions off, selected
      NYC anti-Trump rally ... Gabby Petito Netflix doc debuts ... Mets, Yankees spring training latest Credit: Newsday

      Updated 12 minutes ago Wind damage on LI ... Cold Spring Harbor cuts ... Empty space, hungry commuters at Grand Central ... Mets, Yankees spring training latest

      Video Player is loading.
      Current Time 0:00
      Duration 0:00
      Loaded: 0%
      Stream Type LIVE
      Remaining Time 0:00
       
      1x
        • Chapters
        • descriptions off, selected
        • captions off, selected
          NYC anti-Trump rally ... Gabby Petito Netflix doc debuts ... Mets, Yankees spring training latest Credit: Newsday

          Updated 12 minutes ago Wind damage on LI ... Cold Spring Harbor cuts ... Empty space, hungry commuters at Grand Central ... Mets, Yankees spring training latest

          SUBSCRIBE

          Unlimited Digital AccessOnly 25¢for 6 months

          ACT NOWSALE ENDS SOON | CANCEL ANYTIME