Less traffic. Faster buses. More subway riders.
Those are just some of the outcomes of the first year of congestion pricing in Manhattan’s downtown core, with the anniversary of its launch marked Monday by elected officials and street-safety activists.
The tolling scheme, implemented by the MTA on Jan. 5, 2025, imposes a fee for passenger vehicles entering Manhattan below 60th Street and reaching $9 during peak hours. The aim was to reduce traffic while raising revenue to improve the transit system.
New York City was the first in North America to implement congestion pricing, following London, Singapore, Stockholm and other cities globally.
There has been an 11% average monthly dip in traffic in the zone since congestion pricing was implemented, according to the MTA and a report from the Regional Plan Association and the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College. Buses within the zone moved almost 24% faster in 2025 than in 2024, and taxis and Ubers sped up, too. Within the zone, foot traffic increased, noise complaints dropped by 23%, and serious injuries were down 8%.
Bus and subway ridership increased 7%, Long Island Rail Road ridership went up 9% and Metro-North ridership increased 6%, compared to the prior year. (As of the new year, MTA fares went up too, with subway and bus riders paying $3 per ride, a 10-cent jump.)
“By every calculation, congestion pricing is a tremendous success,” said Kate Slevin, executive vice president at the Regional Plan Association. “Beyond all the benefits, I think the biggest takeaway today is that congestion pricing is no longer daily news. It has become part of normal life here in New York.”
About 27 million fewer vehicles entered the tolling zone over the last calendar year than would have occurred without tolling, according to the MTA. Traffic became faster by 25%, 51% and over 20% in the Lincoln Tunnel, in the Holland Tunnel and across bridges into Brooklyn and Queens, respectively.
“We’re winning this battle one year into it,” said Gov. Kathy Hochul, who was joined by MTA Chair Janno Lieber and Mayor Zohran Mamdani at the YMCA on 14th Street in Manhattan. “If there’s any naysayers out there, tell me who they are and we’ll have a conversation. I’ll meet you at my local diner.”
In June 2024, right before congestion pricing was scheduled to take effect and during high-stakes races for legislative seats in the suburbs, Hochul delayed it by about seven months, saying the pause was due to affordability concerns raised after talking with people in diners.
After the November election, Hochul once again pushed congestion pricing forward, though with tolls at a lower rate than the $15-per-entry initially planned.
But when President Donald Trump took office, his administration tried to reverse federal approval of the tolling program and withhold funding to the state. In several lawsuits, Hochul and the MTA defended congestion pricing.
Congestion pricing has so far raised nearly $550 million in revenue, according to officials, which the MTA used to back $15 billion in bonds for investments in the transit system, including signal upgrades on the A and C lines and new Staten Island Railway cars.
“We’re making it easier to know what congestion pricing is paying for by actually putting up proper signage,” Lieber said. “It’s gonna say, ‘This was paid for by congestion pricing.’”
Though the MTA indicated improvements in air quality were inconclusive, a study from Cornell University found a 22% reduction in particulate matter within the zone in the first six months of the program.
Mamdani praised the program, lauding the MTA investments, which he said could “transform the day-to-day realities of a New Yorker.”
As a candidate, Mamdani had said he wanted to “transform” public space in and around the congestion pricing zone. On Monday, he said his administration planned to determine a further course of actions, but did not commit to anything specifically.
“The city has a lot of tools at its disposal to ensure that we’re maximizing the benefits of not just this program but of what it means to get around,” Mamdani said. “I look forward to not only sitting down and going through the different options we have, not only reading the latest report, but also starting to figure out what those steps look like on a near- and medium-term basis.”
