Nearly two years after New York City imposed congestion pricing on Midtown Manhattan, drivers say traffic is just as bad as ever — they’re simply paying more to sit in it.
GPS trucking data from Geotab, a fleet-tracking software company, analyzed more than 50,000 commercial vehicle trips in the congestion zone and found speeds in 2025 were largely unchanged from 2024, before the toll took effect. Traffic moved faster along only 37% of mileage inside the zone, while 46% showed no significant change and 16% of the zone actually got slower.
The findings undercut Metropolitan Transportation Authority chief Janno Lieber’s claims that the toll has been an “unqualified success” and that “all of the metrics” show drivers saving time. The MTA has even placed signs on construction projects crediting them as “made possible by congestion pricing.”
Drivers on the ground describe a different reality.
“It’s just a money grab. Working people can’t afford it. I’m paying up to four grand, and I’m not getting any benefit. Traffic is not flowing.” — Michael, 55, a Queens courier
Benadon Benmore, 40, an ironworker from Harlem who commutes to Hell’s Kitchen, said his evening commute hasn’t gotten any shorter.
“It still takes me two hours to get home. I’m gonna get me a real horse.” — Benadon Benmore
Uber driver Jhoffre Arevalo, 40, of Flushing, said he noticed a brief improvement when the toll first launched, but it didn’t last.
“When congestion pricing started, you’d see the difference. Traffic went down a lot. But now it comes back to normal. I think I see more traffic now.” — Jhoffre Arevalo
The numbers don’t match the MTA’s story
The MTA claims congestion pricing cut traffic into the zone by 11% in 2025. But Port Authority vehicle counts at the Holland and Lincoln tunnels — two of the main routes into the zone — showed only a 4.5% drop in entries compared with 2024, before the toll began.
Geotab’s data also points to an unintended effect: because cars pay the toll once a day but trucks are charged every time they enter the zone, truckers have an incentive to make one trip in and then stay parked rather than leave and pay again. Geotab found tracked commercial vehicles made about 4.6 stops a day in 2025, up from 4 in 2024 — and that the added trips produced more emissions than the year before.
That complicates Gov. Kathy Hochul’s claim that the toll she championed has delivered “cleaner air.” A city Health Department report from August found pollution levels inside the zone were not significantly different from what they would have been without congestion pricing.
The money keeps flowing
Whatever the effect on traffic, the toll is generating serious revenue for the MTA: $548 million through September of this year, and more than $700 million for all of 2025, according to board documents.
A commuter with E-ZPass driving into the zone at rush hour five days a week pays $45 a week — about $2,250 a year. A large truck pays $108 a week for a single daily trip, roughly $5,400 a year; if that truck has to make two trips into the zone in a single day, the annual cost doubles to $10,800.
And the toll is only going up. The charge for cars is scheduled to rise to $12 in 2028 and $15 in 2031.
“The tolls are eating us alive.” — Michael, Queens courier
