The Fight Over Congestion Pricing: New York City’s Plan Faces Uncertain Future
As New York’s congestion pricing program rolls out, a federal challenge from the Trump administration threatens its survival.
The congestion pricing program in New York City has drawn significant attention since its implementation on Jan. 5. The program, which charges a toll to enter Midtown and Lower Manhattan during rush hours, aims to reduce traffic in the nation’s largest city and encourage commuters from surrounding areas to take public transportation.
Despite early signs of success, the program has faced backlash from residents of the outer boroughs—Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, and the Bronx—and, most notably, from the second Trump administration. The administration has vowed to take legal action and ordered the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) to shut down the program by March 21.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has refused to comply with the Trump administration’s demands, raising questions about the future of the program and the relationship between New York and Washington.
The Rollout and Initial Impact
After early proposals to reduce traffic dating back to the early 1900s and decades of debate, New York City's congestion pricing program was approved in 2019, with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) selecting technology and engineering company TransCore to operate the tolling infrastructure.
“This nation-leading program brings us one step closer to making New York a more environmentally sustainable and economically vibrant city,” then-MTA Chairman and CEO Pat Foye told the New York Daily News.
“Quite simply, it makes New York City a better place to live, work, and visit.”
Originally scheduled to launch in January 2021, the program was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic and ultimately went into effect in 2025. At the time of its approval, opposition to congestion pricing stood at 39%, down from 44% the year prior.
In the first week after implementation, traffic in Manhattan decreased by 7.5% compared to the same week in 2024, with 273,000 fewer cars entering the borough during peak hours. The website for E-ZPass—the toll collection system used in nearly 20 states, including New York—experienced an overload of visitors following the program’s launch.
“The early data backs up what New Yorkers have been telling us all week—traffic is down, the streets feel safer, and buses are moving faster,” MTA CEO Janno Lieber said in a report by Reuters.
Inbound travel into Manhattan—which has the most congested traffic in the United States—has been 30–40% faster. By Jan. 30, one million fewer cars had entered the toll zone, while subway ridership increased by 7.3%.
In an interview with ABC News, MTA Deputy Chief of Policy and External Relations Juliette Michealson touted the program’s success.
“The purpose of the program is to reduce the number of vehicles entering what had been the most congested district in the country,” she said.
“The program is working.”
Pedestrian traffic within the congestion zone also increased following the program’s launch, with nearly 36 million people traveling through the district on foot in January—up from 34.3 million the previous year, a 4.6% increase. Within the first month, the MTA collected more than $48 million in toll revenue.
Controversy and Opposition
While the congestion pricing program has shown signs of success, it faced considerable opposition before its implementation.
A 2024 poll by Siena College found that 64% of New York City residents opposed the initiative, with even stronger opposition in surrounding suburbs, where 72% were against the program. One in seven people—14%—said they would travel to Manhattan less often to avoid paying the toll.
Many business owners and employees have voiced dissatisfaction with the program since its launch, arguing that rising expenses will impact both businesses and customers.
“All the deliveries we get, they increase the prices, so the affected people are going to be the customers because we have to increase our price too, and they gotta pay for it,” Erasmo Cisneros, an employee working in the congestion zone, told WABC.
“We have a lot of customers who come from out of state—Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania—and all these people, if they don't bring their cars, they're not going to come to the store.”
Others didn’t mind the toll, viewing decreased traffic as a benefit.
“Of course, I prefer not to pay,” business owner Vanessa Alves told The New York Times. “But I don’t mind paying if there’s less traffic.”
Lawmakers have also opposed the plan, with bipartisan criticism of the program. Republican Rep. Mike Lawler called it a “massive new tax” on working families.
“Gov. Hochul’s congestion pricing scheme is nothing more than a massive new tax on working families, daily commuters, college students, and local residents who just want to travel within the city they call home,” Lawler wrote in an X post.
“Frankly, this plan amounts to legalized theft by a governor and state government that is out of control and out of touch with everyday New Yorkers.”
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, also opposed congestion pricing, calling it an “unfair burden” on New Jersey commuters.
“While I have consistently expressed openness to a form of congestion pricing that meaningfully protects the environment and does not unfairly burden hardworking New Jersey commuters, the current program lines the MTA’s pockets at the expense of New Jerseyans,” Murphy said in a statement last month.
Murphy also thanked former President Donald Trump, referring to his second administration’s plan to end the congestion pricing program.
“I want to thank President Trump and Secretary Duffy for their efforts to halt the current congestion pricing program in Manhattan’s Central Business District,” Murphy said.
Many advocates in the Bronx have opposed the program, arguing that its effects will extend beyond Manhattan. They warn that traffic on the Cross Bronx Expressway—a major thoroughfare running from the Bronx neighborhoods of Morris Heights to Throggs Neck—may increase as drivers seek to avoid paying the toll, exacerbating existing traffic congestion and air quality issues. Currently, one in five children in the South Bronx has asthma.
“If congestion pricing is successful, we are supposed to take on about 4,000 more trucks and cars that will come across the RFK Bridge into our community—trying to divert from the tolls,” Mychal Johnson, a member of the advocacy group South Bronx Unite, told WABC.
“To build a bigger facility for asthmatics right now, because you know more is coming, is a slap in the face, and it's also really insulting.”
In the same report, South Bronx Unite announced a collaboration with Columbia University to study air quality in the borough.
Trump Administration’s Intervention
Following the start of Donald Trump’s second term, the future of congestion pricing was called into question after Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy sent a memo to Gov. Kathy Hochul revoking federal approval for the program.
“New York State's congestion pricing plan is a slap in the face to working-class Americans and small business owners,” Duffy wrote in the memo, obtained by The Introspective.
“Commuters using the highway system to enter New York City have already financed the construction and improvement of these highways through the payment of gas taxes and other taxes. But now, the toll program leaves drivers without any free highway alternative and instead takes more money from working people to pay for a transit system rather than highways. It’s backwards and unfair. The program also hurts small businesses in New York that rely on customers from New Jersey and Connecticut. Finally, it impedes the flow of commerce into New York by increasing costs for trucks, which in turn could make goods more expensive for consumers. Every American should be able to access New York City regardless of their economic means. It shouldn't be reserved for an elite few.”
That same day, Trump posted on Truth Social, declaring that New York was now “saved.”
“CONGESTION PRICING IS DEAD. Manhattan, and all of New York, is SAVED. LONG LIVE THE KING!” he wrote.
In response, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) sued the Trump administration in an effort to keep the program in place, calling the administration’s actions “baseless.”
“Today, the MTA filed papers in federal court to ensure that the highly successful program—which has already dramatically reduced congestion, bringing reduced traffic and faster travel times while increasing speeds for buses and emergency vehicles—will continue notwithstanding this baseless effort to snatch those benefits away from the millions of mass transit users, pedestrians and, especially, the drivers who come to the Manhattan Central Business District,” MTA CEO Janno Lieber said in a statement.
“It’s mystifying that after four years and 4,000 pages of federally supervised environmental review—and barely three months after giving final approval to the Congestion Relief Program—USDOT would seek to totally reverse course.”
As the lawsuit is pending, the congestion pricing program will continue to operate until a judge makes a decision.
“We are seeking a declaratory judgment making clear that the congestion pricing program is fully authorized. Obviously, that will take some time, but until a judge rules, these cameras are staying on, and we expect the judge to rule in our favor,” Brian Mahanna, legal counsel to Gov. Hochul, told WPIX.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration has ordered the MTA to shut the program down by March 21.