Just over a week after congestion pricing rolled out in Manhattan, the MTA says preliminary data shows the tolling program is working. 

Data collected between Monday, Jan. 6 and Friday, Jan. 10 showed the number of vehicles entering Manhattan’s Central Business District was down around 7.5% compared to the MTA’s estimated weekday baseline for January, agency officials said at a news briefing Monday.

Approximately 499,016 vehicles entered the congestion zone Jan. 6; 531,226 entered Jan. 7; 545,602 entered Jan. 8; 558,635 entered Jan. 9 and 561,604 entered Jan. 10, compared to the MTA’s baseline estimate of 583,000 vehicles on a typical January day, MTA data shows.

"The program is working. It looks like it's working. It feels like it’s working,” Juliette Michaelson, deputy chief of policy and external relations for the MTA, said at the briefing. “It’s been a great week in traffic.”

“These are significantly lower volumes than we would have expected without the program,” Michaelson added.

Congestion pricing officially rolled out on Sunday, Jan. 5, charging drivers a base fare of $9 to drive into Manhattan on or below 60th Street during peak hours. 

Comparing data from Wednesday, Jan. 8 to the average Wednesday in January 2024, the MTA also saw 30 to 40% shorter travel times on inbound river crossings to Manhattan, with the exception of “a couple outliers,” including the Holland Tunnel and the Manhattan Bridge, Michaelson said. 

The Holland Tunnel saw a 65% drop in inbound travel time year over year, MTA data shows, which, according to Michaelson, was possibly due to construction happening on the New Jersey side in January 2024.

The Manhattan Bridge, meanwhile, only saw a 10% reduction, which Michaelson said may have been “explained by other things.” 

“But for one day of data, to see such consistently high trip time reductions is just very, very significant and we’re very happy to see it,” she said. 

On east-to-west streets, the MTA says it saw “consistent trip time improvements” during PM commute hours on Jan. 8, as well as on the FDR Drive and the West Side Highway, according to Michaelson – though westbound travel times on 23rd and 42nd streets increased during the PM peak hours, agency data shows.

Results were “more mixed” on north-to-south avenues, she said, with data showing Third and Eighth avenue saw 21% and 22% travel time improvements, respectively, while travel times on Second, Fifth and Ninth avenues stayed “more flat.”

In a PowerPoint file summarizing their findings that was sent along with a press release, the MTA said overall, buses were “moving faster, especially in the AM peak.”

“The routes seeing the most time savings are those that cross the East or Hudson Rivers into Manhattan — many of which are express buses,” a slide in the PowerPoint file reads.