Defiance demands a good theme song. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul recently strode out onto an Albany stage to deliver her State of the State address, backed by Kelly Clarkson\u2019s anthem \u201cStronger (What Doesn\u2019t Kill You).\u201d The day before her speech, President Trump blasted New York City\u2019s congestion pricing plan as he has in the past, this time calling it a disaster. Adept at managing the grenades lobbed her way from Washington, Hochul merely repeated her own mantra: \u201cCongestion pricing is staying on.\u201d No one can deny that the program has been a great victory for the city, its residents, and its transit network\u2014and the facts bear her out.<\/p>\n
Now a convert, Hochul was once a detractor<\/a>. Citing the region\u2019s affordability challenges and faced with her own political vulnerabilities positioning herself for a re-election campaign, she temporarily halted the congestion pricing plan in 2024. In a true weather-vane moment, she pivoted to resurrect it last spring at a lower rate. It went into effect in January 2025.<\/p>\n More from Gabrielle Gurley<\/a><\/p>\n By almost every metric, New York\u2019s decades-in-the-making plan has exceeded expectations in year one. The vision for congestion pricing was twofold: reducing traffic tie-ups and air pollution and sourcing billions of dollars in revenues to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. It turned out to be a tremendous success.<\/p>\n The program\u2019s opponents were legion. The mere thought of paying to drive into the city center generated \u201cthe end is nigh\u201d visions of vehicular doom. Sullen suburbanites didn\u2019t want new tolls, and didn\u2019t want to travel by bus, subway, or commuter rail either. Neighborhoods at exit points before toll cameras didn\u2019t want their communities or parking spaces used as escape routes providing free spots for toll-avoiders.<\/p>\n But even some of the loudest grousers have grudgingly accepted that congestion pricing is not the worst way to persuade drivers to change their habits. There are dozens of metrics to illustrate the ways congestion pricing has revolutionized how people travel into the city from the New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut suburbs.<\/p>\n Tourism has clawed its way out<\/a> of the pandemic. People traveling into the city for Broadway shows, dining, shopping, and more haven\u2019t been put off by the $9 peak hour toll<\/a> (which increases to $12 in 2028 and $15 in 2031), which drops to $2.25 overnight.<\/p>\n Traffic-wise, 27 million fewer vehicles came into New York. That\u2019s 73,000 fewer vehicles driving daily<\/a> into Manhattan\u2019s Central Business District below 60th Street, an 11 percent drop.<\/p>\n The Regional Plan Association, a tristate research organization, determined that through the end of 2025, New York public transit has moved back to healthier post-pandemic ridership levels. Subway ridership was up 7 percent, which translates to about 75 percent of pre-pandemic levels. On commuter rail, ridership on the Long Island Rail Road has increased nearly 10 percent, to 80 percent of pre-pandemic levels; on Metro-North, the commuter rail system that serves the New York and Connecticut suburbs, ridership increased by 6 percent, taking the network to 89 percent of pre-pandemic levels. Bus ridership is up nearly 8 percent to 64 percent of pre-pandemic rates, with faster trips in the congestion relief zone.<\/p>\n The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has embarked on a furious round of new projects and infrastructure upgrades. The program collected about $550 million<\/a> in new revenues last year, and will ultimately send an estimated $15 billion<\/a> to the MTA\u2019s current capital program projects.<\/p>\n Detractors claim that these increased expenses siphoned to transit have been passed on to customers; the New York Post labeled<\/a> these downsides \u201ccongestion-flation.\u201d<\/p>\n New and improved transportation infrastructure projects include subway signal upgrades and elevator and escalator construction\u2014in a transit system that presents monumental challenges for disabled people\u2014with hundreds of millions of dollars now available. Noise and parking complaints have decreased. Would tens of thousands of cars coming off the streets improve air quality not only in the congestion zone sector but throughout<\/a> the metro area? The evidence says yes.<\/p>\n Progress with a price tag prompts resistance. Stockholm and London faced protests, too, over their respective programs that have been universally applauded as contributors to improved travel times and reduced pollution. The New York pricing plan sparked a dozen lawsuits. The federal Department of Transportation, the Trucking Association of New York, the state of New Jersey, Long Island towns, and anti-tax opponents all lined up to drive a stake into the program. To date, none of the cases succeeded in turning the cameras off.<\/p>\n