Gov. Hochul and Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) officials say congestion pricing is successfully reducing traffic in Manhattan, but nearly a year after it was initiated, some analysts and drivers recently interviewed by The New York Postclaim that “traffic still stinks.” In Sept., Hochul called the program “nothing short of transformational, making streets safer, reducing gridlock across the region, and unlocking generational upgrades to mass transit, benefitting millions.”
Yellow cab driver, Mohammad Haque, disagrees. “It hasn’t changed anything, especially south of 60th,” he recently told The Post. “They took lanes away for buses, lanes for bikes – what’s congestion pricing doing?”
The MTA says traffic is down 11%, thanks to the congestion zone, but Port Authority data seems to contradict those findings, noting that crossings to and from New Jersey dropped less than 5% year over year. The Manhattan Institute’s Nicole Gelinas called the MTA’s data collection a “crude way of doing it,” adding that “it hurts confidence in the program.”
MTA CEO Janno Lieber said there were about 20 million fewer vehicles on the road in 2025 than the previous year, and pedestrian safety and air quality are improving. According to Air Quality News, in the first six months of the program, air pollution was reduced by 22% in Manhattan’s toll zone, with significant improvements across the entire metropolitan region. Those figures, which came from a Cornell University study, analyzed data from 42 air quality monitors in NYC between Jan. 2024 and June 2025, tracking PM2.5 concentrations before and after the program’s launch.
Unfortunately, the following “Letters to the Editor,” published in December by The New York Post, tell a different story, from the perspective of people on the street.
Melanie Coronetz, Manhattan: “Anyone driving or taking a cab down Fifth Avenue can see that there’s more congestion than ever. Double-parked trucks and the bus lane leave only one lane open for cars. You’re lucky if you get to go one block before the light changes.”
William Carroll, Woodside: “One only needs to look at the traffic going over the Ed Koch Bridge in the morning hours. One can also walk up to the Queensboro Plaza subway station and watch numerous people jump the turnstiles. Fare beaters need to pay their share to ride the subway, and the hardworking vehicle drivers need to be able to drive freely and not be punished as they earn an honest living.”
Eric Oppong, 33: “In the beginning… it was good because there were less cars in the city. But right now, it’s really bad. [People] still come to the city and there’s traffic everywhere. Us taxi drivers hate the commute. I thought the congestion thing was gonna help, but it really didn’t.”
Sources: The New York Post, Air Quality News
