{"id":60317,"date":"2025-12-04T01:27:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T01:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/60317\/"},"modified":"2025-12-04T01:27:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T01:27:09","slug":"kathy-hochul-mta-hail-better-traffic-in-manhattan-from-congestion-pricing-but-drivers-insist-otherwise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/60317\/","title":{"rendered":"Kathy Hochul, MTA hail better traffic in Manhattan from congestion pricing, but drivers insist otherwise"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gov. Hochul and MTA leaders\u00a0have hailed the controversial congestion pricing<\/a> as a success that\u2019s driving down traffic in the heart of Manhattan \u2014 but other analysts are\u00a0saying not so fast.<\/p>\n

Drivers, meanwhile, are fuming that traffic still stinks and they\u2019re just paying more after nearly a full year of the toll.<\/p>\n

The cash-hungry Metropolitan Transportation Authority added insult to injury to some gridlock weary commuters as they claimed \u201cpolling\u201d showed drivers are warming up to the congestion toll even though some reported it\u2019s still hell on wheels downtown.<\/p>\n

Some drivers are saying that the traffic is still terrible despite the implementation of congestion pricing at the start of the year. Robert Miller<\/p>\n

\u201cThis program has been nothing short of transformational, making streets safer, reducing gridlock across the region, and unlocking generational upgrades to mass transit, benefitting millions,\u201d Hochul crowed in September.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cCongestion pricing is working, it is legal, and the cameras are staying on.\u201d<\/p>\n

But yellow cabbie Mohammad Haque observed, \u201cIt hasn\u2019t changed anything, especially south of 60th.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cFrom what we\u2019ve seen, the traffic is even worse. In my opinion, they\u2019re just taking the money and not helping the city at all. Traffic is still there and we\u2019re losing time \u2013 and the MTA, they\u2019re just taking the money.\u201d<\/p>\n

Haque said that traffic has remained unchanged south of 60th street. Robert Miller<\/p>\n

The MTA predicted the $9 toll would raise $500 million in the first year, the MTA has already exceeded its revenue projection.<\/p>\n

The MTA, meanwhile, claims that traffic is down 11% due to the congestion zone.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But crossings to and from New Jersey into the congestion zone suggest the change was much smaller \u2014 dropping less than 5% year over year, according to Port Authority data for April, the most recent available month.<\/p>\n

Experts also questioned the MTA\u2019s rosy stats.<\/p>\n

The MTA predicted the $9 toll would raise $500 million in the first year, the MTA has already exceeded its revenue projection. Christopher Sadowski<\/p>\n

Nicole Gelinas, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, said the data collection by the MTA<\/a> is a \u201ccrude way of doing it, and it hurts confidence in the program.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cameras were set up ages before congestion pricing started,\u201d she said. \u201cThe MTA should have collected real data for comparison during the long delay.\u201d<\/p>\n

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To determine the congestion toll\u2019s success, the MTA compared\u00a0current traffic data in the congestion zone<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0old traffic data from the same area<\/a>. But, the baseline figures were just estimates of how many cars would have\u00a0entered the zone if the toll never existed, critics said.<\/p>\n

Alison Conway, a CUNY civil engineering professor, said the MTA only used a single day in October to pull numbers, which leaves \u201croom for a lot of uncertainty in how representative that day is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crossings to and from New Jersey into the congestion zone suggest the change was much smaller \u2014 dropping less than 5% year over year. Robert Miller<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough I assume it was carefully selected by [the New York MTA Council] to avoid any atypical conditions.\u201d Conway said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She noted the method was \u201cbasic, but reasonable.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAgain, the one concern would be if there were unusual circumstances in any year,\u201d she said, like a major weather event or construction, \u201cthat might make that adjustment factor unusually high or low, leading to an over- or under-estimate of a true baseline value.\u201d<\/p>\n

Port Authority data also provides insight into how much traffic could be coming into the congestion zone.<\/p>\n

MTA CEO Janno Lieber argued the program has made drivers happier. Robert Miller<\/p>\n

Crossings at the Lincoln and Holland tunnels dropped year-over-year by about 6.7% in January and around a 10% in February \u2014 with smaller declines of about 5.4% in March and 4.9% in April.<\/p>\n

Overall traffic on the New York to New Jersey crossings was down just 0.4% year-over-year \u2014 and it was up on the George Washington Bridge, which drivers used to avoid the congestion zone<\/a>.<\/p>\n

By contrast, the MTA is reporting an 8% drop in vehicles entering the congestion zone in January, 12% in February, 13% in March, and 12% in April, suggesting its congestion-zone counts show much steeper declines than what Port Authority sees just at the Hudson River tunnels, but doesn\u2019t account for other ways drivers could enter Manhattan.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The MTA said in a statement it adjusted the October data for seasonality differences using bridge and tunnel data\u00a0from the MTA, NYC DOT and the Port Authority.\u00a0<\/p>\n

MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber presented the New Capital Dashboard Program via online access to the press and public inside the MTA\u2019s training room at Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan, NY on December 1, 2025. James Messerschmidt<\/p>\n

MTA CEO Janno Lieber on Tuesday at an NYU Law School event argued the program has made drivers happier<\/a>, pointing to unspecified polling to prove his case, adding there\u2019s been about 20 million fewer vehicles on the road this year while pedestrian and air quality is improving.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, who loves congestion pricing? The drivers are now, in polling recently, are letting us know they love it because they\u2019re saving so much time,\u201d the agency head said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people who drive to work in Manhattan who spend 50 bucks to park actually do value their time. I\u2019m not shocked.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked what poll he was referring to, the MTA initially sent a September survey of 800 people \u2013 not just drivers \u2013 in which 59% participants said they supported the program.<\/p>\n

Haque said that, despite claims from the MTA and Lieber, he does not notice a difference regarding city traffic. Robert Miller<\/p>\n

The agency then sent a second poll that does cite three-in-four drivers who said they have faster commutes into the central business district \u2013 but the data is early February, when the program was just a month old.<\/p>\n

Drivers like Haque, the cabbie, aren\u2019t sharing the same upbeat attitude as Lieber.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t notice any difference. Look at the traffic here \u2013 from morning until 8 p.m. every day, every single day. They took lanes away for buses, lanes for bikes \u2013 what\u2019s congestion pricing doing?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomeone should ask them what they\u2019re doing with all this money. New York should do something about traffic, but not this. This is not good for us. This is not good for the city.\u201d<\/p>\n

Howard said that he has paid an extra $2,000 in tolls compared to last year due to congestion pricing. Robert Miller<\/p>\n

Electrician Deacon Howard, of Staten Island, said the program that can charge $9 to drivers and more for truck drivers also said \u201cit\u2019s not relieving traffic because people still have to drive.\u201d<\/p>\n

He estimated he\u2019s stuck forking over around $2,000 more compared to last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the same traffic, just more fees. I don\u2019t see no difference. Four years ago it took me an hour and a few minutes to get to work,\u201d Howard, 62, said. \u201cNow it takes me an hour and five minutes to work. So where\u2019s the difference?\u201d<\/p>\n

Rad Perez, a construction foreman from Chinatown, also argued the daily fee \u201chasn\u2019t alleviated anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perez also said that the additional fee has not changed anything. Robert Miller<\/p>\n

\u201cAs contractors, we have to charge our clients to drive below 60th, so someone\u2019s paying it and we\u2019re still driving,\u201d Perez said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo congestion pricing is doing nothing. All that money is going nowhere I can see. Being in New York for 50 years, I knew it was never going to work, and now they\u2019re just charging more taxes, more fees, taxes on top of fees and fees on top of taxes, and it\u2019s just never ending.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other drivers said depending on the day, traffic isn\u2019t as bad or wasn\u2019t as frustrating at the start of the tolling.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the beginning with the congestion it was good because there were less cars in the city. So the traffic was not that bad. But right now, it\u2019s really bad,\u201d said taxi driver Eric Oppong, 33.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople don\u2019t care. They still come to the city and there\u2019s traffic everywhere. Sometimes it takes an hour to go 1.5 miles. Us taxi drivers hate the commute,\u00a0I mean, I thought the congestion thing was gonna help, but it really didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gov. Hochul and MTA leaders\u00a0have hailed the controversial congestion pricing as a success that\u2019s driving down traffic in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60318,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[748,426,75,84,83,57,141,9,24,63,17898,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-60317","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manhattan","8":"tag-congestion-pricing","9":"tag-kathy-hochul","10":"tag-manhattan","11":"tag-manhattan-headlines","12":"tag-manhattan-news","13":"tag-metro","14":"tag-mta","15":"tag-new-york","16":"tag-new-york-city","17":"tag-nyc","18":"tag-tolls","19":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60317\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}