Opponents of congestion pricing are claiming vindication.
A new New York City report concluding that Manhattan’s congestion pricing program has not lowered air pollution — one of the benefits supporters repeatedly promoted — is being cited by critics as proof that the $9 toll on drivers was primarily a “money grab” to help bankroll mass transit.
The Department of Health analysis found that charging vehicles to enter Manhattan south of 60th Street did not produce measurable air-quality improvements inside the congestion relief zone, even as car trips fell 11% compared with the period before the toll took effect.
“Did congestion pricing affect air quality in the congestion relief zone? No,” the report said.
Kathryn Freed, a Lower East Side resident and member of New Yorkers Against Congestion Pricing Tax — the group that sued the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in an effort to stop the toll — said the findings show pollution levels have remained essentially unchanged.
“There hasn’t been any change. Supporters said there would be less pollution if traffic went down in Manhattan. Apparently there’s no environmental benefit at all,” said Freed, a former state judge and councilwoman.
“How can they say traffic went down but not air pollution?”
The report contrasts sharply with comments Gov. Kathy Hochul made at a January press conference, when she touted congestion pricing by saying that “pollution is down more than 20% in one year.”
Hochul initially paused congestion pricing in 2024, but then signed off on it after the November election and it went into effect in January 2025, overcoming opposition from President Trump and lawsuits.
“It was all bullsh-t. It was to put money in the MTA’s pocket,” said Vinnie DiMino, owner of the Sea Breeze Fish Market on Ninth Avenue, near the Lincoln Tunnel.
“The report just proved it wasn’t about air pollution. It was all about transit. It’s all a lie – the Democratic politicians lie.”
He fumed, “I feel like I have been robbed. It cost me $50-$60 a day to go back and forth, in and out of the [congestion] zone for deliveries. They are killing us.”
The toll is scheduled to rise to $12 in 2028 and $15 in 2031.
Manhattan resident Jill Bowman, who drives to Brooklyn and New Jersey several times a week, said, “We know it’s bullish-t but we can’t do anything about it.
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“It’s not about saving lives. It’s about making money,” she said.
Alex Pichado, an Uber driver for 10 years, added, “If there is no change [in air pollution], they should stop it. There is no reason to continue with it.”
The DOH report also said that “pollution levels were not significantly different because of congestion pricing” in environmental justice zones outside Manhattan, such as in the South Bronx
Supporters of congestion pricing said that’s actually good news, because environmental studies conducted before the toll was implemented projected that diversion of traffic to avoid the levy could boost pollution in those areas.
A report released in March claimed that pollution did worsen in Bronx neighborhoods.
“Opponents of congestion pricing said there would be hotspots for increased pollution. That has not happened,” said John Kaehny, executive director of Reinvent Albany, a pro-mass transit watchdog group.
Kaehny’s group supported congestion pricing to reduce traffic and to fund the MTA, but did not promote the pollution reduction argument, because as the DOH report noted, auto traffic makes up only about 14% of particulate matter emissions and 20% of nitric oxide emissions in the atmosphere.
“That congestion pricing would only have a small impact on air quality is consistent” with prior environmental impact statements on the toll’s consequences, the report said.
“Whoever was hyping the air pollution was wrong from the beginning,” Kaehny said.
Critics of the congestion toll in the outer boroughs remained skeptical.
Staten Island Borough President Vito Fossella, a plaintiff in the lawsuit to block congestion, noted that truck traffic has increased in his borough, and questioned how the report could say pollution hasn’t.
“The report reaffirms that congestion pricing was nothing but a money grab. Just come out and say it,” he said.
But the MTA, which operates the congestion toll and collects the revenue to fund its buses and trains, said the pollution report proves the program is working.
“Before we turned the cameras on, there was concern about the potential for increased pollution caused by drivers looking to avoid the toll,” MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber said in a statement about the city report.
“As this study confirms, that didn’t happen, and congestion pricing is already funding additional investments to further improve air quality.”
