Visitors in Midtown and decrease Manhattan was down almost 8% after the primary full week of congestion tolling, in accordance with preliminary site visitors knowledge launched Monday by the MTA.
“It has been a very good week here in New York,” mentioned Juliette Michaelson, MTA’s deputy chief of coverage and exterior relations and a chief architect of the company’s congestion pricing plan. “Just look out the window — there’s less traffic, quieter streets, and I think everybody’s seen it.”
Whereas anecdotal proof has abounded within the 9 days since New York began charging drivers to drive on Manhattan’s floor streets at or beneath sixtieth St., Monday marks the primary time the MTA has launched knowledge obtained by the tolling community.
Based on the information collected final week, 499,016 automobiles entered the congestion tolling zone final Monday, the primary weekday since tolling started. These numbers steadily rose by means of the work week, with 561,604 automobiles coming into the zone on Friday.
On common, that’s 539,217 automobiles a day — 7.5% fewer automobiles than the company mentioned would usually enter throughout a piece week in January.
Congestion pricing cameras on Central Park West and Columbus Circle. (Barry Williams/ New York Day by day Information)
“These are significantly lower volumes than we would have expected without the program,” Michaelson mentioned.
For many who do drive — or journey on the MTA’s buses — the information exhibits that the discount in crossings has had a large impression on most commute instances.
Evaluating final Wednesday to a median Wednesday in January 2024, journey instances improved throughout the board in any respect river crossings within the congestion zone.
A drive into Manhattan by means of the Lincoln Tunnel Wednesday was 39% quicker than final January, in accordance with the information. The Queens-Midtown Tunnel sped up 39%, and the Brooklyn Bridge sped up 28%. The smallest enchancment was on the Manhattan Bridge — which nonetheless had 10% quicker journey instances than in January final 12 months.
“For one day of data, to see such consistently high trip-time reductions is just very, very significant,” Michaelson mentioned.
Equally, east-west streets throughout the congestion zone noticed speeds enhance. Except westbound site visitors on forty second St. and twenty third St., crosstown site visitors instances fell between 6% and 36%.
North-south journey instances remained largely the identical, nonetheless. Visitors on Third Ave. and Eighth Ave. sped up by greater than 20%, however Second, Fifth and Ninth Aves. noticed 1% longer journey instances.
Michaelson and different MTA officers emphasised that the information is preliminary, and that the journey time knowledge particularly is predicated on simply someday of congestion pricing.
“This is still preliminary data,” Michaelson mentioned. “Travel patterns, we expect, will change.”
The MTA has not but crunched the numbers on what the information means for tolling income — an revenue stream that’s meant to again $15 billion in bonds to fund among the company’s greatest enlargement and restore tasks.
John McCarthy, MTA’s head of coverage and exterior relations, informed reporters to count on early income income knowledge in “weeks, not months.”
The info comes as members of New York’s Republican delegation traveled to Mar-a-Lago over the weekend and reportedly mentioned plans to kill the congestion toll with President Elect Donald Trump.
Trump has been a longtime opponent of the plan, and vowed early in his presidential run to undo it if elected — although it stays unclear what authorized paths he must up-end a toll that’s administered by the state and has already been authorized by federal regulators.
Requested about Trump’s risk previous to the MTA’s Monday knowledge launch, Mayor Adams mentioned he wished extra data, and didn’t need to “throw more hysteria into this law of the land.”
“If the president decides an action such as that, I don’t control it,” he mentioned.
