ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Today marks four months since toll congestion pricing took effect in part of Manhattan. The $9 daily vehicle fee was supposed to reduce traffic and raise much-needed money for the public transit system. So how has it been working? We're going to get details from Stephen Nessen, transportation reporter with member station WNYC. Hi there.
STEPHEN NESSEN, BYLINE: Hi, Ari.
SHAPIRO: How has it been going?
NESSEN: Traffic in Manhattan is much improved. By some calculations, there are some 82,000 fewer vehicles each day coming into the congestion zone in lower and midtown Manhattan. That's a 13% reduction compared to the last two years of traffic. So clearly, it's working. But from a driver's perspective, and those who have to pay to enter an area that was once free, well, just take a listen to Tony Smith, a delivery driver from New Jersey.
TONY SMITH: It sucks.
NESSEN: Well, why does it suck?
SMITH: Because it's too much money. We can't afford to pay that and pay toll coming out of New Jersey.
NESSEN: You don't think the reduction in traffic makes up for it?
SMITH: It's not a reduction in traffic - only in the beginning, but not now.
NESSEN: Is it hurting your bottom line?
SMITH: Is it?
NESSEN: That's right. A $9 fee on passenger vehicles that's in effect from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays, and on the weekend it starts at 9 a.m. and goes to 9 p.m. But there is a 75% discount for all vehicles during the overnight hours. But trucks like Tony's truck, which create more congestion - they have to pay as much as $21.
SHAPIRO: All right, so clearly some drivers are not too thrilled. What about people more broadly? How's this going over in New York City?
NESSEN: There's a Siena College poll from March that found 42% of New York City residents want the congestion pricing toll to stay. About a third think it should be killed. That's a change from December, when it had much less support, but there are other impacts that people really like. For example, bus speeds are now 4% faster in the zone, and an even wilder statistic are traffic speeds through the Holland Tunnel. That's the tunnel that connects Lower Manhattan to New Jersey. It was notoriously clogged with traffic backed up in all directions. Traffic speeds through there, Ari, are improved 48% after the tolls went into effect.
SHAPIRO: Wow.
NESSEN: That's where I met Courtney Behrens today. She works nearby at a landscape design firm near the entrance to the Holland Tunnel.
COURTNEY BEHRENS: We used to have huge amounts of honking every single night. And immediately after congestion pricing, that has absolutely gone away except for sometimes on holiday weekends. It's been pretty incredible, as somebody who works here in this neighborhood, to not be super stressed out by stressed-out drivers.
NESSEN: Another fascinating impact with fewer cars in Manhattan, the number of crashes and pedestrians injured by vehicles is also at its lowest in years - since the pandemic, really, when there were very few vehicles on the road.
SHAPIRO: So why has the Trump administration tried to kill the congestion pricing plan?
NESSEN: Trump, who's from here, made his career in New York City, and on the campaign trail, vowed to kill the tolls once elected. He says it's unfair for drivers. His transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, ordered the tolls to be turned off. And the state's transit authority, which runs the program, refused and immediately sued the Trump administration for a couple of reasons, including that these are state roads they control and that the federal government had previously signed off on this congestion pricing plan.
SHAPIRO: What has the transportation secretary said about that?
NESSEN: Well, Secretary Duffy says one reason he's against the tolls is because it forces drivers onto the subways, which he says are unsafe. But the reality about subway safety is somewhat mixed. Overall, major crimes are way down on the subway. There's been a surge in police. Assaults are still stubbornly high, and last year, there were 10 murders, which is twice as many as the year before. But let's remember, all the money from congestion pricing goes to improving the subways - buying new signals, upgrading the electric system and replacing those train cars which do date back to when Richard Nixon was the president.
SHAPIRO: That's WNYC transportation reporter Stephen Nessen. Thank you.
NESSEN: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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