This column originally appeared in On The Way, a weekly newsletter covering everything you need to know about NYC-area transportation.<\/p>\n
Sign up<\/a> to get the full version, which includes answers to reader questions, trivia, service changes and more, in your inbox every Thursday.<\/p>\n The Bronx just can\u2019t catch a break.<\/p>\n A new analysis<\/a> published this week by Columbia University researchers found that air quality has worsened in parts of the South Bronx near highways since the MTA\u2019s congestion pricing program went into effect in early 2025<\/a>.<\/p>\n The pollution uptick in the Boogie Down was predicted four years ago in the transit agency\u2019s environmental review of the Manhattan tolls, which warned that truck traffic in the borough could increase as drivers circumvent the congestion charge.<\/p>\n But the new study, which is still undergoing peer review, shows for the first time that the tolls may be harming some of the city\u2019s poorest communities.<\/p>\n The Columbia researchers analyzed two years of data from 19 air quality sensors around the Bronx. Four of those sensors, which were near expressways, \u201cexhibited significant increases\u201d in fine particulate matter, according to the study. Two others, including one in a community garden, saw decreases in pollution. The remaining sensors didn\u2019t clock a significant shift in air quality.<\/p>\n The findings add a wrinkle to a Cornell University study released last year, which found that overall air pollution in the New York City region dropped<\/a> as a result of the tolls.<\/p>\n \u201cWe knew this data was going to be hard to hear,\u201d said \u200aDavid Rosales with the group South Bronx Unite, which has partnered with Columbia University for a decade on air quality research. \u201cSince congestion pricing, air pollution in our community has increased, statistically significantly increased, according to the data.\u201d<\/p>\n The risk of additional air pollution in parts of the Bronx hits hard: The borough\u2019s residents suffer from some of the highest rates of asthma in the country.<\/p>\n After Bronx leaders raised concerns over the tolling program\u2019s potential effect on air pollution, the MTA pledged $70 million in mitigation measures for the borough. The agency provided funding for things like asthma programs and the electrification of<\/a> diesel-burning refrigeration trucks at Hunts Point Produce Market.<\/p>\n Those initiatives are still being rolled out while the study shows the South Bronx\u2019s air pollution has worsened.<\/p>\n \u201cMitigation can’t be adding a Band-Aid onto a wound that’s already infected,\u201d said Rosales. \u201cRight now, people in the South Bronx can’t breathe. They’re going to the emergency room because of asthma. And so mitigation, in our opinion, doesn’t justify burdening our community.\u201d<\/p>\n The drop in air quality is the latest slight to Bronxites.<\/p>\n Subway riders in the borough were miffed last year when they learned the MTA had allocated more than $10 billion to modernize aging subway signals, but none of the upgrades would come to Bronx tracks<\/a>.<\/p>\n The MTA also snubbed the Bronx four years ago by declining to extend the planned Interborough Express line there<\/a>, a longtime goal of regional planners.<\/p>\n The MTA\u2019s Penn Access project, which aims to bring Metro-North service to Penn Station along with four new stations in the Bronx, is years behind<\/a> schedule due to a scheduling feud between the New York transit agency and Amtrak.<\/p>\n MTA officials noted that since congestion pricing went into effect, daily traffic on the Major Deegan and Cross Bronx expressways declined by nearly 10,000 and 11,000 vehicles, respectively. They also blamed last year\u2019s Canadian wildfires for worsening air quality.<\/p>\n The congestion tolls are a boon for the city’s transit system. The revenue<\/a> from the program finances $15 billion in MTA infrastructure upgrades, including the addition of several new elevators at Bronx stations.<\/p>\n MTA Chair Janno Lieber pointed to the program\u2019s positive effect on the city\u2019s overall air quality, and said he was working to help address the air quality concerns in the South Bronx.<\/p>\n \u201cReducing air pollution has always been one of the core goals of New York\u2019s congestion pricing program,\u201d Lieber wrote in a statement. \u201cThe data shows it\u2019s already succeeding, and now we\u2019re taking the next step by using revenues to fund additional improvements for Bronx residents.\u201d<\/p>\n Eric Goldstein, an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council, said the findings pushed by the MTA and the Columbia researchers can both be right.<\/p>\n \u201cThe overall story of congestion pricing is such an affirmative one in terms of air quality, congestion, pollution and health of the mass transit system,\u201d said Goldstein. \u201cBut that doesn’t mean that there might not need to be some small mitigation measures added to the South Bronx if in fact it turns out that there are some additional pollution burdens that can be traced back to diversion of traffic through congestion pricing’s program.\u201d<\/p>\n The \u201csuper speeder\u201d crackdown. New York Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie said state lawmakers have agreed on a deal to require the owner of any vehicle that racks up 16 or more speed-camera tickets in 12 months to install a speed-limiting device in their car. This so-called super speeder measure is expected to be included in a final state budget agreement<\/a>, which is now five weeks late.<\/p>\n One train from New Jersey to Long Island? The federal takeover of the Penn Station renovation project<\/a> is opening up the possibility of creating a unified regional transit system.<\/p>\n Free buses for all vs. discounted transit for the needy. The nonprofit Citizens Budget Commission says in a new report that the money required for Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s free bus plan would be better spent expanding fare discounts<\/a> \u2014 on buses and subways \u2014 for low-income New Yorkers.<\/p>\n PATH fare hike. The cost of a single ride went up this week, from $3 to $3.25<\/a>. Bundles of 10 trips, 20 trips or 40 trips on TAPP cards will also cost more, increasing from $2.85 per ride to $3.10.<\/p>\n Now-empty Spirit Airlines terminal. What will happen to LaGuardia Airport\u2019s Marine Air Terminal, the Art Deco masterpiece that security line haters appreciated for its dainty size<\/a>?<\/p>\n Pedicab enforcement. Midtown business groups are pushing for an overhaul of the city\u2019s pedicab industry<\/a> in order to protect tourists from being ripped off.<\/p>\n Is Mamdani the city\u2019s first \u201cbike mayor?\u201d He\u2019s not only pushing to expand the city\u2019s network of protected bike lanes \u2014 the 34-year-old democratic socialist has also made biking around town a seemingly genuine part of his political identity<\/a>.<\/p>\n Curious Commuter<\/p>\n