By Joseph De Avila

NEW YORK -- In just a week, traffic here is drastically different. The introduction of a $9 congestion fee has resulted in faster speeds on some of the city's famously snarled streets and fewer commuters on the bridges and tunnels.

"The traffic is absolutely less, even during rush hour," said Norman Buenaventura, who has been a taxi driver for 13 years.

What remains, however, is a region divided on the issue of adding to the cost of driving in a notoriously expensive city.

The number of vehicles entering New York City's congestion pricing zone, located at 60th Street to the southern tip of Manhattan, fell 8% last week compared with the average January workday from 2022 through 2024, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Most vehicles must pay $9 a day to enter the congestion zone at peak hours.

Congestion pricing has reduced travel times on many Manhattan streets, but its impact has been sharpest for the bridges and tunnels entering the city. Trips across the Holland Tunnel, connecting Manhattan to New Jersey, took about 4 1/2 minutes, a 65% drop in travel time during the morning rush compared with January 2024, according to the MTA. Trips across the Lincoln Tunnel took about four minutes, a 39% reduction. Travel time on the Brooklyn Bridge also clocked in at about four minutes, a 28% decline.

New York City's new toll plan, inspired by cities including London, Stockholm and Singapore, is the nation's first congestion-pricing system. It will serve as a test for other major U.S. cities such as San Francisco and Los Angeles that have explored their own versions of business-district tolls.

The debut of the tolling plan marks the culmination of a long and arduous road for congestion pricing. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul delayed the start of the program in June after years of planning, citing concerns of the costs. She later revived it with a lower fee.

The program still faces legal challenges from the state of New Jersey and other opponents. President-elect Donald Trump also opposes it.

Whether congestion pricing achieves its long-term goals of reducing traffic in Manhattan's core along with curbing pollution and producing new revenue for the city's transit system is unclear. But congestion pricing fans like what they see so far.

Some toll supporters have celebrated the reduced traffic by posting videos and photos on social media showing congestion-free streets.

"It's working as planned," said Danny Pearlstein, a spokesman for the Riders Alliance, a public-transit advocacy group that supports congestion pricing. "Either drivers pay and contribute to the public-transit system they depend on in order to be able to drive, or they leave their car at home."

Travel time along Canal Street has dropped by about one-third during the afternoon rush compared with a year earlier, according to the MTA. Travel times along Third Avenue dropped by 21%.

Traffic got worse on some roads. Traveling westbound on 23rd Street during the afternoon rush was 15% slower than last year and westbound traffic on 42nd Street was 17% slower as well.

Gregg Reuben, chief executive of parking-management firm Centerpark, which operates 35 garages in Manhattan, said the number of customers has dropped 20% since congestion pricing went into effect. Centerpark operates parking garages inside and outside of the congestion zone and has seen a drop-off in business at all locations, he said.

"I don't believe we will fully recover that 20% loss," Reuben said.

The new tolling system was ill-advised for Manhattan's business district, which is still recovering from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, Reuben said.

Buenaventura, the taxi driver, said congestion pricing has been tough for cabbies too. Less traffic means shorter rides on the meter. Also, there have been fewer people hailing cabs recently, he said.

Before the start of congestion pricing, Buenaventura said he could get up to 15 trips if he stayed in Manhattan for most of the day. Now he's getting three or four trips in the span of six or seven hours, he said.

It previously took one hour to wait in the taxi line at New York City's airports to pick up a passenger. Now he waits about three or four hours as demand has fallen, Buenaventura said.

Passengers in taxis or other for-hire vehicles pay a reduced congestion fee.

Bhairavi Desai, executive director of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, said it is too early to tell if the shortage of passengers is because of congestion pricing or seasonality of the industry.

"There is still tremendous anxiety for the overall impact on the number of trips and driver income," Desai said. "Everybody wants to move through traffic faster, especially cabdrivers. But that only works for you economically if you are picking up more fares."

Some New Jersey commuters aren't happy with the change. Michael Krantz, from Teaneck, N.J., said coming into Manhattan for leisure is getting too expensive.

"My wife and I have decided that we aren't going to be coming into the city as much or going out on Sundays because of congestion pricing," said Krantz, who works in finance in Midtown Manhattan. "The extra $9 adds to the normal toll you have to pay for the Lincoln Tunnel, plus parking, plus the high cost of going out in New York."

Angel Gilliland, from West New York, N.J., who works in hospitality in Midtown, is taking the bus to work now instead of driving.

"I can't afford it -- on top of the parking, on top of the tolls," Gilliland said. "It's too much."

She plans to sell her Jeep Compass because she won't be driving as much. She's frustrated because she's had three knee surgeries and it is easier for her to drive to work.

"I made an investment in my car because of my physical abilities, and you've taken that from me," Gilliland said.

Orion Doscher, who lives in Lyndhurst, N.J., and works in the building-restoration field in Midtown, said she's optimistic congestion pricing will make an improvement for commuters like her. She worries about people like her parents, who own a car and live on Manhattan's Lower East Side.

"For people who live here and work here and have cars it's going to be tough," she said. "Every time they want to go somewhere they have to pay."

Write to Joseph De Avila at joseph.deavila@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 14, 2025 21:00 ET (02:00 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.