Congestion pricing in New York City, also called the Central Business District Tolling Program or CBDTP, started on January 5, 2025. It applies to most cars traveling in the central business district of Manhattan, which is south of 61st Street. This area is known as the Congestion Relief Zone. The goal is to encourage people to use public transportation instead of driving. The plan was first suggested in 2007 and became part of the 2019 New York State budget. Tolls are collected electronically and depend on the time of day, the type of vehicle, and whether the vehicle has an E-ZPass toll transponder. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) estimates that $15 billion will be raised from tolls through bond money. This money will help fix and improve subway, bus, and commuter rail systems.
In 2024, New York City had the most traffic jams in cities worldwide, even though it has a public transit system that operates all day and night. Since the early 1900s, many ideas have been proposed to reduce traffic in Manhattan’s central business district. One idea was adding tolls for all vehicles crossing the East River, which separates Manhattan from Brooklyn and Queens.
In 2017, Governor Andrew Cuomo suggested using open road tolling technology to create a new source of money for the MTA. In 2019, after discussions, Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio agreed to use congestion pricing to help fix the MTA’s problems. Federal officials approved the plan in June 2023, but delays caused the start date to be pushed back. Governor Kathy Hochul stopped the plan in June 2024, just before it was set to begin. In November 2024, Hochul restarted the toll with a lower cost. Soon after the toll began, the Trump administration canceled federal approval, but a court ruled in 2026 that this action was not legal.
After congestion pricing was introduced, fewer private cars traveled in the zone. Public and private vehicles had shorter travel times. More people walked and businesses in the area grew. Fewer traffic accidents and pedestrian deaths occurred, and air quality improved.
Tolling program
The congestion pricing zone covers most of Manhattan below 61st Street. Drivers do not pay a toll if they stay on FDR Drive or the West Side Highway. Drivers on the Brooklyn Bridge and Queensboro Bridge are not required to pay if they use specific ramps connected to these highways or travel outside the congestion zone. Tolls are not charged for vehicles that use or cross excluded roadways for trips that start and end in the central business district (CBD).
The Traffic Mobility Review Board, which suggested tolls for the congestion zone, recommended in November 2023 that the basic fee for passenger vehicles be $15, limited to one time each day. Other vehicle types would pay up to $36 once daily, while taxis and for-hire vehicles would pay a fee for each trip into the zone, no matter how many trips they made. Vehicles using the Holland, Lincoln, Hugh L. Carey, and Queens–Midtown Tunnels (which already charge a separate toll) could receive discounts on the congestion toll. No discounts are given for vehicles using bridges, such as the George Washington Bridge, which requires both the bridge toll and the congestion toll. In November 2024, the basic fee for passenger vehicles was reduced to $9, limited to one time daily.
These toll rates apply during the daytime from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays and from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekends. Tolls are reduced by 75% during nighttime hours, and no discounts are given during that time. On "gridlock alert" days, the MTA could increase the basic fee by up to 25%, but as of December 2024, Hochul directed the MTA not to raise tolls on those days. The MTA also reserved the right to change the basic fee by up to 10% for up to a year. All drivers with E-ZPass transponders linked to their license plate will pay the E-ZPass rate, regardless of the state that issued the E-ZPass. Drivers without E-ZPasses pay 50% more than the E-ZPass rates.
Low-income residents receive a 50% discount on daytime tolls after making their first 10 trips into the congestion zone in a calendar month. The discounts reset at the start of each month. Toll exemptions apply to a small number of vehicles, including commuter buses, emergency vehicles, specialized government vehicles, and vehicles transporting disabled riders. Another exemption, for people with disabilities and vehicles transporting disabled passengers, was announced in February 2024. Following discussions in early 2024, the MTA proposed exemptions for more government vehicles, school buses, and intercity buses. If a vehicle enters the congestion pricing zone multiple times in one day, only the first trip is charged.
License plate scanners are placed along streets leading to the congestion zone. The scanners, installed by TransCore, are placed on traffic-light poles and horizontal arms above the streets. Additional scanners are above northbound avenues leading away from the zone, but they are used only for tracking vehicles, not for charging tolls. Scanners are mounted above FDR Drive and the West Side Highway to check if a vehicle stayed on these highways without entering the congestion zone. Vehicles are charged a toll if scanners on these highways no longer detect them after a certain time and if they have not been detected as exiting the zone. Vehicles already in the congestion zone are not charged, even if they cross the West Side Highway, unless they leave and re-enter the zone. At 110 detection points, there are over 1,400 scanners. One third of the scanners are on existing pedestrian walkways, overpasses, and street poles, with the rest on newly installed gantries.
For each vehicle, scanners look for an E-ZPass transponder and capture infrared images of license plates. Scanners can automatically identify the vehicle type. Infrared scanners are used instead of flash cameras (used at MTA Bridges and Tunnels) to avoid light pollution in nearby neighborhoods. Plates that are hard to read are reviewed manually. The system also uses machine learning to classify vehicles into tolling categories.
Early plans
The Brooklyn, Manhattan, Williamsburg, and Queensboro Bridges over the East River, which connects Long Island to Manhattan, originally had tolls that were removed before the Great Depression. Plans to add tolls again were considered in 1933, 1952, 1966, 1968, and 1971. In the 1970s, Mayor John Lindsay suggested limiting cars in Lower Manhattan and adding tolls to all East River crossings. However, Lindsay’s successor, Mayor Abraham Beame, later disagreed with the toll plan. Beame’s successor, Mayor Ed Koch, tried to reinstate limits on vehicles entering Manhattan.
In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, congestion pricing in New York City was proposed multiple times but never approved. In 2007, Mayor Michael Bloomberg included a congestion pricing plan as part of PlaNYC, his city development strategy. However, the plan did not move forward in the New York State Assembly. In 2015, traffic commissioner Sam Schwartz proposed congestion pricing again, but no laws were passed to allow it.
Approval and implementation efforts
In mid-2017, complaints about delays and poor conditions in New York City’s subway system reached a high point. Governor Andrew Cuomo proposed a plan called congestion pricing, inspired by how former mayor Michael Bloomberg handled similar issues with the State Legislature. Earlier, Cuomo had doubted such a plan could work, but he later said, “This is an idea whose time has come.” Cities like London and Stockholm had already successfully used congestion pricing. Cuomo’s plan is different from Bloomberg’s. It aims to raise money for public transit and reduce traffic, while considering the needs of people who commute from the suburbs. The New York Times noted that Bloomberg’s 2008 plan, which could have raised $500 million each year, might have helped fix subway problems in 2017. Cuomo’s plan came after Mayor Bill de Blasio suggested a tax on wealthy individuals to fund the subway. The plan could use open road tolling, which tracks vehicles using E-ZPass transponders and license plates without slowing them down. This method was not widely used during Bloomberg’s time. At that time, New York City had the third-worst traffic congestion among major cities worldwide, behind Moscow and Los Angeles. Shortly after Cuomo’s announcement, de Blasio said he did not support congestion pricing and believed his plan would be more successful in Albany.
In October 2017, the New York State Government created a task force called Fix NYC to find solutions for improving public transit and reducing traffic. The task force studied traffic in New York City and reported its findings to Cuomo by December. Fix NYC included people who supported congestion pricing, such as Sam Schwartz, Charles Komanoff, and Alex Matthiessen, even after Bloomberg’s plan had failed. On October 22, 2017, de Blasio announced a five-point plan to address congestion, including banning deliveries during rush hours on certain streets, creating new traffic management plans, and using emergency vehicles to respond quickly to crashes on highways.
On January 16, 2018, Cuomo shared more details about his congestion pricing plan during his State of the State address. Tolls would be charged in a specific area of Manhattan, depending on the time of day and type of vehicle, not on bridges. On January 19, the Fix NYC task force released a report recommending tolls based on time of day and location. Cars would pay up to $11.52, trucks up to $25.34, and taxis a $2 to $5 fee if they entered Manhattan’s busy downtown area during rush hours. Only drivers using the Brooklyn Bridge or Queensboro Bridge and then exiting onto the FDR Drive would avoid tolls. Tolls on taxis and for-hire vehicles would start in one year, and on cars and trucks in 2020. The plan could raise up to $1.5 billion each year. The report also found that fewer than 5,000 of the 118,000 people who drove from outer boroughs to Manhattan were considered working poor.
The congestion toll was not included in the state budget passed in March 2018. However, a fee was added for taxi, for-hire, and ride-share trips in Manhattan below 96th Street. This included a $2.50 fee for taxi trips, a $2.75 fee for privately operated for-hire trips, and a $0.75 fee per rider for ride-share trips in that area.
In January 2019, Cuomo announced a new state budget that included congestion pricing. The following month, de Blasio supported congestion pricing during a joint announcement with Cuomo, outlining ten steps to improve the MTA. One step required implementing a form of congestion pricing by December 2020, a plan both leaders agreed on for the first time. Revenue from tolls would be placed in a special fund for the MTA. In March 2019, congestion pricing was again included in the state budget, though details remained to be worked out.
A congestion pricing proposal was passed on April 1, 2019, as part of the New York State Budget, making New York City the first U.S. city to use this system. The plan would cover Manhattan south of 61st Street, except for the FDR Drive and West Side Highway, and the Battery Park Underpass connecting them. Vehicles would be charged once per day, and the plan would not start until 2021 at the earliest.
The law assigned the Central Business District Tolling Program to the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority (TBTA). The TBTA board was to create a “traffic mobility review” board with a chair and five members, appointed by the TBTA. This board would recommend toll amounts by late 2020 or no later than 30 days before the program started. A public hearing would be held before the board’s vote.
The board was to ensure at least $15 billion in funding for the MTA’s 2020–2024 Capital Program, excluding tolling program costs. Most funds (80%) would support the Staten Island Railway, subway, and bus operations, while 10% each would go to the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad. The board could also review the MTA’s Capital Program and recommend toll exemptions based on traffic studies. Emergency vehicles and vehicles for people with disabilities would not be charged. A plan for charging for-hire vehicles was to be handled by the TBTA. The TBTA and New York City Department of Transportation (NYCDOT) would report on the program’s effects, such as traffic, air quality, and transit use, one year after implementation and every two years after that.
On March 31, 2019, the plan was updated to exempt the West Side Highway and give credit to drivers using the Henry Hudson Bridge entering the congestion zone. Toll equipment would be installed at exits from the West Side Highway, FDR Drive, and avenues marking the congestion zone’s northern boundary at 59th Street. Sam Schwartz suggested using elimination methods to reduce toll reader costs. The law also exempted people living in the congestion zone who earned less than $60,000 annually by subtracting toll costs from their taxes. On March 28, 2019, the TBTA requested technology options for tolling, including Bluetooth readers, connected vehicle systems, smartphone apps, and GPS-based tolling.
Like Bloomberg’s plan, some politicians in Queens opposed Cuomo’s proposal, believing it would harm their area.
Postponement
On June 5, 2024, Governor Hochul announced that the congestion pricing program, originally set to begin on June 30, would be put on hold indefinitely. She said this decision was made because she was worried the program might harm the city’s economic recovery. The state had already saved money to cover any loss of revenue if the program was delayed due to legal challenges. Governor Hochul also proposed raising a payroll tax on New York City businesses to fund the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). The MTA had already spent $555.8 million on equipment for congestion pricing and planned to use $15 billion from toll revenue to improve public transit across New York City. After the governor’s announcement, lawyers for the MTA sent notices to courts about lawsuits related to congestion pricing, as the pause meant the program would not start by June 30.
The day before the announcement, news outlets reported that Governor Hochul was considering delaying congestion pricing. These reports said her decision was not due to economic concerns but because she feared the program might hurt Democratic candidates in competitive races for the U.S. House of Representatives in New York’s suburbs, which could affect the party’s chances of winning control of the House in November. Although Democrats did not win control of the House, they gained three seats in New York after the program was paused. Political leaders from both parties said the decision was made out of fear and not based on careful planning. Later reports said Governor Hochul was worried about polls showing the program was not popular with voters.
News from Crain’s New York said Governor Hochul had been concerned about the political effects of the program for months and was looking for a way to pause it. She also reportedly expressed frustration that the plan was created under the previous governor, Andrew Cuomo, and that she never believed it was well-designed. Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie said the governor had told him in the past two weeks that she was becoming worried about how voters were reacting to congestion pricing. Discussions about pausing the program increased after a visit to the White House earlier in the week. During that visit, Governor Hochul talked with President Joe Biden and other officials about delaying the plan. Before her announcement, she told the White House, House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries, Mayor Eric Adams, and other politicians about her decision, but state lawmakers and MTA Board members were not informed beforehand.
Environmentalists, transit supporters, and business groups that usually support Governor Hochul strongly criticized her decision. They said the lack of toll revenue would hurt the transit system, and many of these groups opposed her plan to increase the payroll tax in New York City. Although Mayor Eric Adams said he would support the governor’s choice, several of his top officials, including two MTA Board members and the head of the Department of City Planning, spoke out against the decision. The governor’s appointees to the MTA Board were upset by the move.
MTA Chairman and CEO Janno Lieber was told about the governor’s decision shortly before the news was made public. The decision surprised MTA leaders. Some news outlets said Lieber tried to find a temporary solution to fund the MTA so the program could be revived in 2025, but he stopped after seeing how much backlash the governor’s decision caused. He also reportedly threatened to resign over the delay, though he later denied this.
News outlets like Politico and the New York Times first said the governor’s decision would need approval from the MTA Board. Other reports suggested the MTA Board might override the governor’s order because the Public Authorities Reform Act of 2009 requires board members to act in the best interest of the MTA. Experts questioned whether the governor could legally delay the program on her own. A lawyer from Columbia University said the decision could be challenged in court under state law, and it might also violate a law requiring state agencies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 85% by 2050.
After the delay was announced, a survey of 1,400 Democratic voters showed 50% supported the pause and 32% opposed it. Many voters thought the toll would make their commutes harder, but more were in favor of the toll if it funded specific projects. Supporters of congestion pricing held rallies to show their support.
On June 7, the MTA released its first public statement since the governor’s announcement. It said the delay put parts of the MTA’s 2020–2024 Capital Program at risk and that the agency would focus on keeping the system running instead of improving it. The MTA Board would review the program and present changes at its June meeting. The statement also said the program required approval from the federal government, New York City, and New York State, and the MTA could not start it without that approval.
Final approval of the program required the state and city transportation departments and the MTA to sign an agreement as part of the federal government’s Value Pricing Pilot Program. On June 8, ABC News reported that the federal government had not yet approved the plan. Officials at the MTA had expected the approval to be routine after the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) reviewed the program’s environmental impact. On June 10, MTA CEO Lieber said the agency was reducing its capital program and would not give up on congestion pricing. He confirmed the governor had told the state transportation commissioner not to sign the agreement. The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) did not approve the MTA’s environmental review or the agreement. The FHWA approved the MTA’s re-evaluation of the environmental impact on June 14.
Near the end of June, New York State Controller Thomas DiNapoli warned that the MTA might need to delay $17 billion in projects or cut services. The MTA’s board voted to delay $16.5 billion in projects.
Implementation
The toll began on January 5, 2025, at midnight as planned. The program started on a Sunday when traffic was lighter, making it easier to fix any unexpected problems. No late fees were charged for the first 60 days. In January, Lyft passengers who took rides through the toll zone received a $1.50 credit (equal to the toll fee). This credit could be used for future rides or with the city's Citi Bike system, which Lyft also operates.
The Jewish Press reported that congestion pricing cost Hatzalah $250 each day. The MTA's rules for exempting emergency vehicles required them to be owned by a company, but Hatzalah's vehicles were personally owned. The NYPD seized cars that used fake or hidden license plates to avoid the toll. The fee caused problems for people using garages inside the congestion zone. On January 8, after a person was incorrectly charged a congestion fee for an Uber trip to a building on 61st Street, the MTA adjusted the congestion zone's boundaries. Some residents said they were charged for leaving garages in the zone because sensors mistakenly thought their cars had entered the zone when they were already inside.
Studies showed that car traffic, car accidents, parking violations, and noise complaints decreased. At the same time, more people used public transit, took yellow taxis, and visited businesses in the toll area.
During the first week of the program, traffic dropped by 7.5% compared to the same week in 2024. Congestion on major streets decreased. Daily vehicle entries into Manhattan's central business district dropped to between 475,000 and 560,000 from a baseline of 583,000. Travel times improved, especially for river crossings, with 30–40% faster trips between Manhattan and New Jersey. Crosstown trips improved by 20–30%, and north-south avenue travel times improved by up to 20%. These trends continued in later months. In March 2025, vehicle entries into the congestion zone dropped by 13% compared to March 2024. By July 2025, 67,000 fewer cars entered the zone daily than before the toll. A study found that delivery companies used smaller vehicles (charged lower tolls) in the zone. Over 11 months, vehicle counts in the toll zone dropped 11%, and in the first year, there were 27 million fewer vehicle entries than in previous years.
The toll caused parking shortages in Upper Manhattan and at Long Island Rail Road stops outside the zone. An RPA report from June 2025 found that congestion in northern New Jersey decreased by up to 14% due to the toll. Other studies showed reduced congestion throughout the New York metropolitan area. Afternoon travel times on major highways in the Bronx increased by 9% in the first two weeks, but later data showed slight decreases on the Cross Bronx Expressway.
Bus travel times improved after the toll was implemented. Taxi trips within the zone increased, and taxi travel times also improved. Express buses from Staten Island saw faster speeds; the SIM24 bus had a 5.3% faster travel time, saving nearly four minutes due to quicker tunnel crossings. The MTA reported that travel times into the congestion zone were cut in half in some areas, and bus and subway ridership increased slightly compared to 2024. A May 2025 analysis found a 4.4% to 13% increase in MTA transit ridership, and subway ridership rose 7.7% from 2024 to 2025, adding over 90 million rides.
Pedestrian traffic in the toll zone increased by 3.4% in the month after the toll started, more than double the 1.4% increase in Manhattan overall. Traffic-related deaths in the zone dropped to 87 in the first half of 2025, down from 128 in the same period in 2024.
Broadway theatre ticket sales increased after the toll was implemented. Most restaurant owners in the toll zone said their business stayed the same, but some reported higher vendor prices or fewer customers. Between the third quarters of 2023 and 2025, vacant storefronts in the toll zone decreased more than in Manhattan or citywide, though vacancy rates remained high compared to other areas. City sales tax revenue rose 6.3% from 2024 to 2025.
In July 2025, New York City's Health Department shared data showing air pollution levels inside and outside the congestion zone from October 2024 to March 2025. Most locations had steady or lower pollution levels after the toll started. An update through spring 2025 found that pollution in the congestion zone decreased slightly, but the change was not statistically significant.
A 2026 study using crowd-sourced data and an EPA emissions model estimated that vehicular emissions dropped by 16–22% eight weeks after the toll began. This was due to 10–14% fewer car trips and 12% faster traffic speeds. A December 2025 analysis found that peak hour air pollution in the toll zone dropped by 22%, and all five city boroughs and the New York metropolitan area saw reduced pollution, though less so. However, preliminary studies based on daily pollution levels showed little improvement, even in the toll zone.
An RPA report from