Data from a truck-tracking company shows speeds barely budged even as the Metropolitan Transportation Authority keeps patting itself on the back for the toll, which costs a minimum of $9.
asserted
which → track → 9
MTA boss Janno Lieber has called the toll an “unqualified success,” saying “all of the metrics” show people are saving time — and the agency is taunting drivers by slapping signs on construction projects that read “made possible by congestion pricing.”
But GPS trucking data showed
asserted
data → call → pricing
% of the zone actually moved slower while drivers railed their daily commutes are anything but a fairy tale.
asserted
commutes → move → tale
“It’s just a money grab,” said Michael, 55, a courier from Queens, who was filling up at a Mobil station at 36th Street and 10th Avenue.
asserted
who → ’ → Street
“Working people can’t afford it.”
asserted
people → work → it
“I’m paying up to four grand, and I’m not getting any benefit,” he said.
asserted
he → pay → benefit
“Traffic is not flowing.”
asserted
Traffic → flow → ?
Benadon Benmore, 40, an ironworker from Harlem who works in Hell’s Kitchen, said his ride home has not improved since the cash-strapped MTA got its new revenue stream flowing with the help of Gov. Kathy Hochul.
asserted
stream → work → Hochul
“It still takes me two hours to get home,” Benmore said.
asserted
Benmore → take → hours
“I’m gonna get me a real horse.”
asserted
I → go → horse
Jhoffre Arevalo, 40, an Uber driver from Flushing, said the streets did ease up when the toll was new.
asserted
toll → say → Flushing
“When congestion pricing started, you’d see the difference.
asserted
you → start → difference
Traffic went down a lot,” Arevalo said.
asserted
Arevalo → go → ?
“But now it comes back to normal.
asserted
it → come → ?
I think I see more traffic now.”
asserted
I → think → traffic
The MTA claimed congestion pricing cut traffic into the zone by 11% in 2025.
asserted
pricing → claim → 2025
But Port Authority counts at the Holland and Lincoln tunnels, two main ways into the zone, showed just a 4.5% drop in vehicle entries that year compared with 2024 before congestion pricing was implemented.
asserted
pricing → show → 2024
Trucking data doesn’t show traffic in the zone has sped up either.
asserted
traffic → show → zone
Geotab, a company that sells software businesses put in their trucks and vans to track vehicle activity, analyzed more than 50,000 commercial vehicle trips in the zone and found that from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., speeds in 2025 were mostly the same as in 2024, before the toll.
Traffic only moved faster along 37% of mileage within the zone, while 46% showed no significant change in speed and 16% was slower, Geotab found.
asserted
Geotab → sell → speed
The way trucks are tolled may be keeping them parked in the zone, Geotab data showed.
uncertain
data → toll → zone
Cars pay once a day, but trucks pay every time they come in, which gives truckers a reason to come in once and stay put.
asserted
which → pay → reason
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asserted
Report → start → news
Geotab found the commercial vehicles it tracks are idling more each day as they make more trips.
asserted
they → find → trips
The company’s software, which counts a trip as over when the engine shuts off or the vehicle sits for more than 3.3 minutes, showed trucks and vans made about 4.6 stops a day in 2025, up from 4 in 2024.
asserted
trucks → count → 2024
Geotab said those extra trips created more emissions than in 2024.
asserted
trips → say → 2024
Still, the MTA is getting paid, with the toll raking in $548 million through September of this year and more than $700 million in all of 2025, according to board documents.
uncertain
toll → pay → documents
A driver with E-ZPass who commutes into the zone at rush hour five days a week pays $45 a week, or about $2,250 a year.
asserted
who → commute → 45
A big truck pays $108 a week, about $5,400 a year for one trip into the zone five days a week — but if drivers had to make two trips into the zone in one day that yearly cost would double to $10,800.
The toll will keep rising, with cars jumping to $12 in 2028 and $15 in 2031.
asserted
cars → pay → 2031
The Aporia
