![\"congestion](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/brooklyn-bridge-cp-gantries-dean-moses-2026-1.jpg\" "\\"Editorial")
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A congestion pricing toll gantry charging drivers as they enter Manhattan on the Brooklyn Bridge on the one-year anniversary of congestion pricing. Monday, Jan. 5, 2026.<\/p>\n
Photo By Dean Moses<\/p>\n
Federal Judge Lewis Liman\u2019s ruling against the Trump administration Tuesday<\/a> in its quest to kill congestion pricing in Manhattan ought to put to rest any future effort to stop the traffic-busting toll program.<\/p>\n Liman\u2019s ruling was centered on his interpretation of the law that Trump\u2019s Transportation Department (DOT), led by former reality TV star Sean Duffy, acted unlawfully in ordering the MTA and New York state last year to kill the program that the Biden administration previously approved.<\/p>\n After Liman\u2019s ruling, Duffy and the Trump DOT vowed to appeal to a higher court. They won\u2019t take no for an answer, after all. But pursuing this ridiculous effort by the federal government to tell the city and state what to do with its own streets is a fool\u2019s errand, and a waste of time.<\/p>\n Congestion pricing was not authorized in a vacuum by a cadre of elected officials meeting in secret. The plan was approved through legislation passed by the state Legislature and signed into law in 2018 by then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo \u2014 all of whom were elected by the people of this state.<\/p>\n It then went through the proper review process of the federal government under the Biden administration, and the president signed off on it. That signature of approval lasts in perpetuity and cannot be undone by a successor.\u00a0<\/p>\n New York, and only New York, has the authority to keep or kill congestion pricing. These are our streets, after all. The day may come when a majority of New Yorkers urge their elected officials to put the program to rest, but when it does, it should be the people of New York speaking for itself, not federal bureaucrats in Washington, DC.<\/p>\n Right now, here\u2019s what we know about congestion pricing: it is accomplishing the mission\u2019s main objectives.\n<\/p>\n Traffic is down in the Central Business Zone (CBZ) south of 60th Street in Manhattan, where drivers are tolled upon entering. The first year saw an 11% drop in the number of vehicles entering Manhattan, according to the MTA. Air pollution emissions have also dropped by 22%. Average speeds on CBZ streets are also up.<\/p>\n Tolls from congestion pricing generated more than a half-billion dollars in new revenue for the MTA to leverage into mass transit infrastructure improvements from signal upgrades to purchasing new buses. Subway ridership is also surging again<\/a> to levels not seen since before the COVID-19 pandemic hit the city six years ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n