(NEW YORK) — Preliminary data from the first week of New York City’s highly debated congestion pricing program shows the country’s first such plan of its kind is working, officials said.
“The purpose of the program is to reduce the number of vehicles entering what had been the most congested district in the country,” Juliette Michaelson, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s deputy chief of policy and external relations, said during a press briefing on Monday. “The program is working.”
Michaelson said there has been anecdotal evidence of less congestion in the center of Manhattan since the program’s launch on Jan. 5, newly charging passenger vehicles $9 to access Manhattan below 60th Street during peak hours as part of an effort to ease congestion and raise funds for the city’s transit system. The extra per-ride surcharge is 75 cents for taxis and black car services, and $1.50 for Ubers and Lyfts. During peak hours, small trucks and charter buses will be charged $14.40, while large trucks and tour buses must pay $21.60.
Now, an analysis of one week of travel patterns also shows there are “significantly lower volumes” of traffic in Manhattan’s central business district, with an average of 7.5% fewer vehicles than would have been expected without congestion pricing, she said.
A conservative baseline for vehicles entering the central business district daily in January is 583,000; since congestion pricing started just over a week ago, the daily number has dropped to between 475,000 and 560,000 vehicles, she said.
Travel times have also improved, particularly for river crossings, Michaelson said. It now takes 30-40% less time to travel between Manhattan and New Jersey via the George Washington Bridge, Lincoln Tunnel and Holland Tunnel, she said.
Buses in particular have benefited from reduced travel times, the MTA said. Cars driving crosstown have also benefited, with those trips anywhere from 20-30% faster, the MTA said. Results are about the same to 20% faster traveling north-south on avenues, according to the MTA.
The MTA has not yet calculated the revenue generated so far from the new program, since different vehicles pay different amounts, Michaelson said.
“What is most on our mind at this point in time is that New Yorkers see and feel the effects of congestion pricing in their lives, and that’s what we most wanted to know about first,” Michaelson said.
During a separate press briefing earlier Monday, Mayor Eric Adams called congestion pricing a “major change” for New Yorkers and said the city will be analyzing the data to see what we “need to do better.”
“I want the data to come forward, I want us to analyze the data, see what we need to tweak,” he said.
Adams said last week that the NYPD will be helping to crack down on drivers looking to evade the new fee by covering up parts of their license plates.
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