Six months into congestion pricing, how traffic, revenue and public opinion have changed

Six months after Manhattan’s congestion pricing tolls switched on, drivers are spending less time in traffic — both within the toll zone and in the surrounding area, according to multiple data sources.

At the same time, recent polls show opposition has dropped significantly in suburban areas like Long Island, from 72% a year ago to 48% in May, though more residents oppose it than support it outside New York City.

Commute times through the Queens-Midtown Tunnel, including the last three miles of the Long Island Expressway are down 22%, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Another report, using data from the Waze driving app, found jams reduced not only in Manhattan, but also in the outer boroughs and parts of New Jersey during the first 16 weeks of the program. Commute times for Long Islanders who drive or take the bus into the tolling zone were down as much as 13 minutes during the first two months of the program, according to another analysis using MTA bus data.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority imposed congestion pricing earlier this year to bust stubborn traffic in Manhattan and to generate a new stream of money for public transportation projects, including for subways, buses and the Long Island Rail Road. The measure has endured a vow from President Donald Trump to kill the program and blistering criticism from some commuters, who say it would hurt the city’s economy and further burden overtaxed New Yorkers.

The first-in-the nation program, which charges $9 for most vehicles driving below 60th Street, began Jan. 5 and is on track to raise $500 million from drivers this year, including $61 million in May alone.

Janet Goodman, 64, of Medford, said the decreased traffic is not as important as the financial costs of congestion pricing, especially for those who need to drive to the city daily for work.

"Congestion pricing is a big deterrent from driving into the city. I’m not paying for that," Goodman said as she waited at the Farmingdale station for the LIRR, which she takes into Manhattan several times a month for leisure activities, like seeing Broadway shows.

But Paul Caravello, 50, of Lake Grove, favors the program and said he would pay even more if it meant he could drive in and out of the city without traffic.

"If it throttles traffic, it’s completely worth it. It just wasn’t working the way it was before. The city was always gridlocked," Caravello told Newsday.

Unexpected outerborough boost

A 2022 study led by the Federal Highway Administration predicted congestion pricing could actually drive up traffic in some outlying areas by diverting it from Manhattan. Concerns about extra pollution led the MTA to make mitigation commitments — like air filtration units for schools — in the Bronx and elsewhere. Diverted traffic was also one of New Jersey’s key arguments in a federal case it filed seeking to halt the program.

But rather than reducing Manhattan traffic at the expense of the region, the toll zone has cut traffic jams throughout the region, the Regional Plan Association study found. Congestion pricing meant drivers spent 25% less time stuck in jams in Manhattan and 9% less time in jams in the outerboroughs and parts of New Jersey, it said.

The study — conducted by the RPA, which has supported congestion pricing — used data from Waze, tracking how much time drivers spent in jams based on their GPS location. The RPA compared the first 16 weeks after congestion pricing with the same period in 2024 and also examined the 8-week lead-up period in both years to see if changes were attributable to congestion pricing or other factors. (The authors found a 3% "background" year-over-year decrease attributable to "unobserved factors," which they separated out from the effect of congestion pricing.)

Stony Brook University traffic engineering professor Anil Yazici, who was not involved in the study, described its analysis as "sound."

Benefits of congestion pricing could fluctuate due to weather, seasons and other factors, "but it looks like the implementation started with quantifiable success," he said.

Rachel Weinberger, who co-authored the report, said any effects on traffic on Long Island are likely to be small because of the distance from the toll zone. Still, the roughly 16,000 Long Islanders who commute into Manhattan by car and 5,000 who go by bus are experiencing less traffic en route.

As commuters "get to Queens, and closer and closer to Manhattan, there's less and less traffic," she said.

An earlier RPA study, published in March, used MTA bus data and found average commute times are down between seven and 13 minutes per one-way trip from Long Island. For those who commute five days per week, that’s up to 2.1 hours per week.

MTA data also show 11% fewer vehicles entered the tolling zone in the first five months of 2025, compared with the historical average. Weekday morning Queens-Midtown Tunnel crossing times, including the last three miles of the LIE, are down 22% this year, an MTA spokesperson said.

MTA CEO Janno Lieber cited the RPA report at a board meeting on June 25, saying it allayed previous concerns about traffic displacement.

Meanwhile, LIRR ridership is at its highest since the COVID-19 pandemic, with 32.1 million riders in the first five months of this year — about 87% of 2019 levels. While congestion pricing may have encouraged some Long Islanders to take the train, the increase in ridership this year is part of a multiyear trend and also comes after the addition of Grand Central Madison.

Currently, a round-trip peak hour LIRR ticket into Manhattan costs $29 per person from Hicksville, or $41 from Ronkonkoma (less if using a monthly pass). Depending on location, and number of travelers, that price may or may not be competitive with the cost of tolls, fuel and parking in Manhattan. But as the MTA is set to increase LIRR fares by 4% later this year or next year, some LIRR riders wish trips were cheaper.

"There’s definitely value in public transportation, but people aren’t really incentivized to use it because prices keep going up," said Seven Patterson, 32, of Brownsville, Brooklyn, who commutes to Farmingdale for work.

'Taxed to death'

Some Long Islanders told Newsday they don’t care if the program has reduced traffic — they oppose the program for other reasons.

"I just think we're taxed to death," said Ben Jackson, who owns a general contracting business in Freeport. "Although there is a big need for the MTA, I think the MTA is mismanaged. I think they feel like they ... can spend whatever they want to spend," he said.

Jackson, who joined Town of Hempstead Supervisor Donald X. Clavin Jr. in suing to block the program last year, said he’s given up taking contracts in the city — which he used to do several of per year — out of principle.

Siena College, which has repeatedly polled New Yorkers on congestion pricing, found in May that 48% of suburban residents in the New York metro area oppose it, while 36% support it. That’s a big change from April 2024, when 72% opposed it and just 22% supported it.

In the city, 48% of residents now support it — more than the 38% who oppose it, with a 4% margin of error.

Zilvinas Silenas, president of the conservative-leaning Empire Center for Public Policy in Albany, said that the tolls have a disproportionate impact on people with low incomes.

While wealthy people may appreciate the time saved in traffic, "there are not-so-wealthy people who would rather spend more time in traffic and not have to pay the congestion pricing," he said.

Silenas said the MTA should work harder to cut fare evasion, which costs about $690 million annually, and overtime pay, for which it paid out $1.4 billion last year, among other strategies.

The MTA has told Newsday it is fighting fare evasion with increased police enforcement and new turnstile technology. Fare evasion fell 26% on subways and 9% on buses between June and December, Newsday previously reported.

Congestion pricing still faces opposition from the Trump administration's Department of Transportation, which in an unusual move rescinded federal approval for it earlier this year. A federal judge last month imposed a preliminary injunction keeping the program alive while the case is adjudicated.

Neither the U.S. Department of Transportation nor the Town of Hempstead, which still has a federal case pending after a judge dismissed its state case against the program, responded to requests for comment for this story.

In May — the last month for which complete data is available — 10% fewer vehicles entered the toll zone compared with the previous year. That’s a smaller reduction in traffic than March, which saw a 13% year-over-year reduction.

Weinberger said to keep deterring drivers from driving, tolls need to keep up with inflation. The toll is scheduled to stay at $9 until 2028, when it will increase to $12; then it will go up to $15 in 2031.

Newsday's Mercedes Hamilton and Alfonso A. Castillo contributed to this story.