NYC Congestion Pricing Reduced Traffic in its First Week

After a protracted battle to get the program passed, New York City’s congestion pricing program is already yielding positive results, according to a New York Times article by Ana Ley, Winnie Hu, and Keith Collins. Despite opposition from local leaders and residents, only 11 percent of people who work in the tolling zone drove there before congestion pricing began.

Data from the program’s first week reveals “tens of thousands fewer vehicles entering the busiest parts of Manhattan below 60th Street,” although subfreezing temperatures could also have contributed to the drop in traffic. “Yet the data released by the M.T.A. is the first hard evidence that the congestion pricing plan, the first of its kind in the nation, had a promising start toward its ambitious goal of reducing gridlock,” the authors note.

According to the article, vehicles traveling westbound on the Williamsburg Bridge traveled at a speed 45 percent faster than at the same time last year, and commuters say their daily trips are much shorter. Transit buses also experienced shorter trips, with some routes seeing trips four minutes shorter than before.