The congestion pricing plan places a tax on vehicles entering lower Manhattan during business hours.
By Jack Siciliano
New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s congestion pricing plan to reduce traffic and raise funds for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority(MTA) has been in effect for two months now. So what has it looked like for everyone in and around the city so far?
The congestion pricing plan has been proposed since 2007, but finally went into effect on January 5, 2025. The plan charges tolls during busy traffic hours in the area of Manhattan that lies south of 60th Street. New Yorkers and visitors have now had a few months to adjust to the new tax and the traffic on the bridges is lighter, ridership is up on the subway, and there are less delivery trucks double parked in downtown Manhattan. But all of that comes at the cost of the tax. Commuters have to pay higher costs to get to work, Ubers and taxis are more expensive, and many businesses are looking at higher operating costs by way of paying the congestion tax.
One aspect of the tax that has been celebrated is that trip times from New Jersey into New York City are significantly down. But the congestion tax on top of the bridge tolls creates a large financial burden for commuters from New Jersey.
“Not only are you getting hit with tolls to cross the bridge, but if you cross the George Washington Bridge like I do…It's $17.50 just to cross the bridge, and then as soon as you come south of 60th street, you get hit with another $9 charge” said Chris Wragge, a news anchor for New York’s CBS2 who drives in to the city from New Jersey,
In November, Hochul said in a press conference about the plan that “By getting congestion pricing underway and fully supporting the MTA capital plan, we’ll unclog our streets, reduce pollution and deliver better public transit for millions of New Yorkers.”
The plan has come under scrutiny recently, as President Donald Trump ordered the city to shut down the program by March 21st. But Hochul has not been deterred. She made a 22-slide presentation, based on New York state data, to bring before federal workers highlighting the successes that the congestion pricing has already created.
Some of the statistics Hochul provided are:
Traffic down 8%
Vehicle speeds up 18%
School bus late arrivals down 48%
Yellow cab trips up 10%
66% of frequent drivers into Manhattan support the program
Wragge stated that he believes that congestion pricing is doing what it set out to do, in reducing traffic and travel time in lower Manhattan, but the consequences faced by commuters and businesses in the area should not be ignored.
He mentioned that there has been a decrease in double-parked delivery trucks during the day, which is ideal, but “The problem is you're hitting teachers, firemen, policemen, a lot of people that aren't making a fortune that have to come into the business district to either go to their schools or go to their firehouse or go to their police precinct, and there's no exemptions for them. They're still getting hit with these charges as well. And it's unfair for a lot of people.”
Even those delivery drivers may face risks of losing their jobs.
Megan Acker, a student at Syracuse University whose father previously drove deliveries from upstate into New York City, said “I think that this would have put his job potentially at risk because these companies are having to flip the bill because of the tax.”
Acker also talked about how spread out the upstate New York area is, which means that cars are very important to the residents. Many of them use a car for all instances of transportation, and there are few options for other methods of travel. A tax on car travel is another barrier for upstate visitors of NYC.
So two months in, congestion pricing seems to have carried out its intended effect. The funds raised by the tax will be put into improving the subway system and other MTA projects, and the congestion is definitely down. But the long term implications of the tax remain to be seen, as evidenced by the fair share of new issues that it has raised.