When New York launched congestion-relief pricing in Manhattan final yr, it wasn’t exhausting to see how charging individuals to drive into the busiest a part of the town would make life higher for the individuals who lived there. Not everybody agreed that making life higher for the individuals who really lived within the metropolis was price inconveniencing individuals who did not, nevertheless it wasn’t precisely controversial to assert fewer automobiles would imply quieter, safer, cleaner streets. As Bloomberg experiences, although, drivers within the suburbs have additionally benefited way over you most likely anticipated.
To be clear, we aren’t speaking about suburban commuters who nonetheless select to drive into the town despite the fact that it nonetheless prices cash. Sure, extra individuals taking the practice means much less visitors and shorter commute instances for these keen to pay the congestion cost, however that is additionally previous information. What’s new is the declare that “[t]he majority of drivers’ time financial savings has accrued to these touring exterior the toll zone fully — as an illustration, these commuting from Brooklyn to Queens or inside Northern New Jersey.”
Sure, the concept congestion pricing can be a boon for drivers who by no means enter the congestion zone could also be exhausting to imagine, however that is additionally what the Nationwide Bureau of Financial Analysis discovered in a lately revealed examine. As an alternative of exhibiting that drivers going out of their solution to keep away from the cost made visitors worse exterior the congestion zone, researchers discovered that congestion pricing really lower drive instances.
461,000 hours saved each week
Utilizing an anonymized Google Maps knowledge, researchers checked out journeys taken between September 2024 to June 2025 to see how drive instances modified after New York’s congestion pricing went into impact. However they did not simply take a look at Manhattan and the encompassing metro space. In addition they in contrast these adjustments to the adjustments they noticed in different metro areas to offer themselves a greater thought of what adjustments might be attributed to congestion pricing and which of them couldn’t.
In the long run, they discovered that having fewer automobiles on the roads saved these driving into the congestion zone an estimated 83,000 hours per week. That alone can be fairly spectacular, however after they checked out journeys that by no means crossed into the congestion zone, they discovered the time financial savings was far, far larger. As in, “no less than 461,000 hours per week,” larger.
Commuters driving into the town might have saved extra time per journey — with the researchers discovering drive instances had been lower by a median of three minutes every, whereas journeys exterior the congestion zone had been solely lower by a median of eight seconds — however as a result of the whole variety of journeys was no less than 100 instances larger exterior of Manhattan, the whole time saved added up quick.
Because the Kate Slevin, Regional Plan Affiliation’s government vp, instructed Bloomberg, suburban opponents of congestion pricing “most likely would have mentioned they anticipated no impact in any respect on their [daily] driving,” and but, “There’s a actually sturdy case for everybody in New Jersey to care about this, even should you’re not going to be utilizing the tunnel.”
Wait, however why?
Whereas these suburban and outer-borough drivers who by no means entered the congestion zone saved essentially the most time in combination, researchers additionally discovered that drive instances had been diminished essentially the most on highways close to Manhattan. The additional away you bought from the town, the much less drivers noticed the advantages of congestion pricing. That most likely feels intuitive, nevertheless it additionally helps underscore the researchers’ rationalization for why congestion pricing is a profit for individuals who by no means even drive via the congestion zone:
To grasp why congestion pricing’s whole time financial savings principally accrued to these touring exterior Manhattan, think about that the majority drivers heading into the island traverse roadways exterior the congestion aid zone as they method it from Lengthy Island, New Jersey or wherever they started their journey. By shrinking the variety of peak-time automobiles flowing into the toll zone, congestion pricing reduces visitors on outlying roadways, the place remaining drivers — together with those that by no means had Manhattan on their itinerary — can now go sooner.
Even all the best way out on Lengthy Island, that also translated to drive instances being lower by a median of two.3%. Maybe extra importantly, researchers additionally discovered “no proof of offsetting slowdowns on totally different highway varieties … suggesting that the coverage diminished total visitors volumes somewhat than merely displaced congestion.” These findings may be useful in addressing future opposition, with Slevin saying, “When you have different drivers shifting sooner and getting out of your method faster, in addition to extra individuals on transit, it simply is smart that your native journey goes to be faster.”
