{"id":496541,"date":"2026-01-06T13:12:33","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T13:12:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/496541\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T13:12:33","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T13:12:33","slug":"27-million-fewer-cars-550-million-in-new-revenue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/496541\/","title":{"rendered":"27 million fewer cars, $550 million in new revenue"},"content":{"rendered":"

One year after New York\u2019s much-delayed and hotly debated congestion toll<\/a> went into effect, Gov. Hochul, Mayor Mamdani and MTA Chairman Janno Lieber Monday released numbers they argue point to the success of the program, which charges drivers a base toll of $9 to enter Midtown and lower Manhattan.<\/p>\n

According to state data, vehicular traffic into the congestion zone is down 11% compared with last year, with 27 million fewer vehicles traveling the streets, an average of 73,000 fewer per day.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe results are extraordinary, beyond what we could have expected,\u201d Hochul told reporters Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople with asthma are breathing better,\u201d Hochul said, \u201cand our streets are safer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Congestion pricing, which was written into state law in order to back a $15 billion bond issuance toward projects from the MTA\u2019s 2020-2024 capital budget<\/a>, is also making more money than initially projected.<\/p>\n

Though the toll was initially set at a $15 base rate, Hochul made a controversial eleventh-hour decision to phase that figure in, starting the toll at the current $9 base rate. The zone covers all of Manhattan south of 60th St.<\/p>\n

Initial projections by the state estimated that would bring in some $500 million a year in gross revenue. But current projections estimate the toll will end up bringing in $550 million by the time the first 12 months in revenue are counted.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor a long time we have asked the MTA to do the impossible without providing them with the funding that would even make it something they could consider,\u201d Mamdani said Monday. \u201cWhat this program has done is commit funding to the very capital needs that have been put off for years if not decades.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NewNew York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani joins New York Governor Kathy Hochul and Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is Chair and CEO Janno Lieber in Manhattan to celebrate the successes of one year of congestion pricing in Manhattan on Monday, January 5, 2026. (Michael Appleton\/Mayoral Photography Office)<\/p>\n

\u201cThose are investments that can transform the day-to-day realities of a New Yorker,\u201d the mayor added.<\/p>\n

The toll is set to go up to $12 in 2028, and then to $15 in 2031.<\/p>\n

The toll, which faced years of legal opposition in its planning stages, was almost immediately assailed by the Trump administration after it began last January, with the president claiming to have shut the program down by fiat<\/a> last February.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe stood up here in New York, we showed who we are, and yes, the cameras are staying on,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s efforts to kill the toll are still working their way through federal court<\/a> in Manhattan. The federal government has sought to characterize the toll as an attack on New York\u2019s working class and small-business community, while simultaneously claiming it does not reduce congestion enough and focuses too much on revenue generation.<\/p>\n

But Hochul said Monday that the toll has been a boon for the minority of area residents who commute by car.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow does 25% faster coming through the Lincoln Tunnel sound?\u201d she said. \u201cLet me top that, how about 51% faster coming through the Holland Tunnel? About 25% faster going across our bridges into Brooklyn or Queens? That\u2019s time in your life that\u2019s precious.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hochul projected confidence that the latest legal challenge would end with congestion pricing intact.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time it\u2019s gone before a judge, the judge says, \u2018No, no, the state is right,’\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cLater this month, guess where we\u2019ll be? We\u2019ll be back in court,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we\u2019ll just keep on winning,\u201d she said, mimicking President Trump, \u201cWe\u2019ll be winning so much we\u2019ll be tired of winning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One year after New York\u2019s much-delayed and hotly debated congestion toll went into effect, Gov. Hochul, Mayor Mamdani…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":496542,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,1370,728,405,403,5294,5296,50,5226,5225,5228,5227,522,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-496541","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-latest-headlines","10":"tag-local-news","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-new-york-county","14":"tag-new-york-news","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-newyork","17":"tag-newyorkcity","18":"tag-ny","19":"tag-nyc","20":"tag-transportation","21":"tag-united-states","22":"tag-united-states-of-america","23":"tag-unitedstates","24":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","25":"tag-us","26":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115848331654249285","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=496541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496541\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/496542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=496541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=496541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=496541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}