Congestion Pricing Results Are Mixed but Some Commutes Improve

Many commuters continue to oppose the new tolling program in New York City even as some drivers and bus riders are spending less time trapped in traffic.

Lesly Silva, a hospital technician from New Jersey, said that she didn’t like the idea of drivers having to pay New York City’s new congestion pricing toll.

But on a recent morning, she saved enough time on her own commute by bus into Midtown Manhattan that she stopped for a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich.

Since the start of the tolling plan, she is less concerned about being late. “I take my time getting to work,” said Ms. Silva, 29.

In the long, contentious run-up to the Jan. 5 debut of congestion pricing in the city, one of the plan’s main selling points was that it would tamp down traffic on some of Manhattan’s busiest roads. But since the launch of the program, the first of its kind in the country, data and anecdotes suggest that commuters from places where there was some of the loudest opposition to congestion pricing — the boroughs and suburbs outside of Manhattan — have also seen relief from gridlock.

A new analysis has found that travel times have gotten faster for commuters like Ms. Silva who rely on some of the most heavily trafficked arteries in the metro area.

And yet overall, the results have been mixed since the program started tolling most motorists $9 to enter Manhattan below 60th Street.