Congestion pricing turned six months old Saturday, and Gov. Kathy Hochul is boasting that the tolling program is reducing traffic in the city, among other benefits.
The number of vehicles is down 11%, according to the data cited by the governor's office on Saturday, with 67,000 fewer vehicles entering the Congestion Relief Zone every day.
More than 10 million fewer vehicles have entered the zone compared with last year, data shows.
Traffic delays are down in the zone by 25% and across the metropolitan region by 9%, according to data from the Regional Plan Association and Waze cited in the governor's release.
“Six months in, it’s clear: congestion pricing has been a huge success, making life in New York better,” Hochul said in a statement.
The governor’s office says crashes in the zone are down 14%, with traffic injuries in the zone down 15%. Earlier this week, the city Department of Transportation released data showing that pedestrian fatalities on city streets are at historic lows, matching levels last seen in 2018.
Improvements to air quality and a decrease in noise pollution have also been measurable since congestion pricing was implemented, Hochul's office claimed.
Vehicle-related noise complaints to 311 are down by 45% in 2025, officials say, and a report released earlier this week by the city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene showed steady or decreasing levels of fine particle air pollution at most sites, both inside and outside the zone. This includes Staten Island by the expressway where there were fears of increased pollution. But Staten Island Borough President Vito Fossella says it’s still too early to tell, and his constituents aren’t seeing many other benefits.
“We rely upon things like express buses. And frankly, for the last several months, because of a mishap, there have been a lot of canceled express buses. And those are the lifeline," Fossella said.
His office counted 527 total weekday cancellations in June, only about 106 due to driver availability. While the governor did increase service on four express routes and one select bus on the island, Fossella says without adequate bus service people will have to drive.
“Fundamentally we already pay two tolls. Many people are very reliant and have no choice but to take their car to work. And it was going to hurt them financially," he said. "And it has and it will continue to do so."
Critics argue congestion pricing is an “unfair tax,” including Staten Island Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, who has supported the Trump administration’s fight to cancel the program.
Others have said it would hurt businesses in the congestion zone. The governor's office, however, says pedestrian activity inside the zone was up 8.4% in May, compared with the same period last year, while outside the zone only saw an increase of 2.7%.
The MTA says transit ridership has increased from January to May this year when compared with the same period in 2024.
“The program is achieving all of its goals in terms of traffic reduction, increased travel speeds, safety, noise reduction and more,” MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber said in a statement.
All modes of public transit have had post-pandemic record high ridership in the first half of 2025, according to the transportation agency.
Subway ridership is up 7%, buses up 12%, the Long Island Rail Road saw an 8% increase, a 6% uptick for Metro-North ridership and a 21% increase for Access-A-Ride.
The MTA says subway on-time performance in May was 85.2%, the best in recorded history, and bus speeds have increased by an average of 3.2% within the zone, with some routes increasing by as much as 25%, which the agency attributes to congestion pricing.
The MTA says the money generated by the tolling program will go to funding transit projects across the network, including new subway and commuter cars, signal upgrades, accessibility improvements and a tunneling contract for phase two of the Second Avenue Subway.