# Congestion pricing: reduced air pollution? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 25, 2025, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congestion-pricing-reduced-air-pollution/1018792 "2025-05-25T22:00:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2025, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congestion-pricing-reduced-air-pollution/1018792/1 "2025-05-25T22:00:30Z")
NYC’s congestion pricing has been in effect for about 5 months. Has there been a significant reduction in air pollution in lower Manhattan? Has there been an increase in air pollution in areas near the pricing zone? ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2025, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congestion-pricing-reduced-air-pollution/1018792/2 "2025-05-25T22:01:46Z")
Interesting question. Maybe no one has looked, for as I recall, reducing air pollution was not the motivation for this regulation. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2025, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congestion-pricing-reduced-air-pollution/1018792/3 "2025-05-25T22:13:24Z")
Perhaps reducing pollution wasn’t a motivation, but when I googled it, lots of hits said it was a benefit in other places that have congestion pricing. And it’s not like they don’t measure air pollution in NY. I just couldn’t find any sites that did a before and after comparison. ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2025, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congestion-pricing-reduced-air-pollution/1018792/4 "2025-05-25T22:36:29Z")
This was a cash grab by the MTA. There is _ **no** _ way they would do any studies to see how the areas outside of Lower Manhattan were made worse by extra traffic as that wouldn’t benefit their position. It’s possible they could do a study to show a benefit to lower Manhattan but then the question is did the region benefit or did they just shift their pollution to other boroughs/Upper Manhattan? I’m sure if it had been studied you’d find the latter. ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2025, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congestion-pricing-reduced-air-pollution/1018792/5 "2025-05-26T02:30:07Z")
> [@Spiderman](#): > > This was a cash grab by the MTA. There is _ **no** _ way they would do any studies to see how the areas outside of Lower Manhattan were made worse by extra traffic as that wouldn’t benefit their position. Agencies other than the MTA do air quality research too. No reason to rely on the MTA for studies. I suspect the state can manage a more all-inclusive study. All those people who need to get into Lower Manhattan for work, meetings, appointments, etc., can’t change the locations of those things. They aren’t going to all of a sudden be driving to other boroughs instead. They’ll either pay the surcharge to get into lower Manhattan or they’ll use public transit. Accordingly, I don’t see how the downtown air pollution would just move to other places. ISTM that it will be reduced (to what degree, I don’t know) over the entire region, not lowered downtown and increased elsewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2025, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congestion-pricing-reduced-air-pollution/1018792/6 "2025-05-26T02:34:12Z")
Surprisingly to me, there’s a working paper out now about the Manhattan congestion pricing, released in March. [From the Abstract](https://www.nber.org/papers/w33584): > we show that the policy increased speeds in the CBD, had spillovers onto non-CBD roads, and reduced estimated vehicle emissions throughout the metro area. So they appear to have studied Spiderman’s concern. > **[The Short-Run Effects of Congestion Pricing in New York City](https://www.nber.org/papers/w33584)** > > Founded in 1920, the NBER is a private, non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to conducting economic research and to disseminating research findings among academics, public policy makers, and business professionals. The New York Times looked into this earlier this month. They think pollution is too soon to say, notwithstanding the indirect NBER estimates, which were based on google maps data. They report that traffic has not slowed just outside the congestion pricing zone. Here’s a summary: [![](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:kem5cevl5sjpizk4s27cbyig/bafkreieyiak2xib2cxhtwfbd2u6nafyjvxenz35zhyfmodf2awcyf2vali@jpeg) ](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:kem5cevl5sjpizk4s27cbyig/bafkreieyiak2xib2cxhtwfbd2u6nafyjvxenz35zhyfmodf2awcyf2vali@jpeg) It doesn’t surprise me that charging for a scarce resource once provided for free would have knock-on effects. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2025, 10:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congestion-pricing-reduced-air-pollution/1018792/7 "2025-05-26T10:37:07Z")
> [@Spiderman](#): > > This was a cash grab by the MTA. Considering that MTA is the main alternative to driving in that area, and people are going to continue to travel - and the one that does produce less pollution, its ability to get increased funding seems to be necessary. ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2025, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congestion-pricing-reduced-air-pollution/1018792/8 "2025-05-26T12:48:28Z")
[Losses to the MTA’s operating budget are staggering, with nearly $700 million in revenue not collected in 2022 alone](https://www.mta.info/blue-ribbon-report-fare-toll-evasion) The above text/link is from the MTAs own website! This buffoon agency has hired guards to prevent fare evasion who they’ve caught not doing anything (because they were sleeping), or even worse, _assisting_ fare evaders by holding the gates open. Yup, that’s right, they’re _paying extra_ for the privilege of being ripped off! A couple of years ago 5 engineers were arrested for nearly $1 million in [overtime fraud](https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/current-ex-mta-workers-charged-with-overtime-fraud-totaling-more-than-1m-feds/2759102/), claiming, on average, a shockingly unbelievable over 3000 hours in overtime, over above their regular hours. They wouldn’t need ANY additional funding if they cut out waste, abuse, fraud, & theft! ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2025, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congestion-pricing-reduced-air-pollution/1018792/9 "2025-05-26T13:00:53Z")
> [@Spiderman](#): > > This buffoon agency has hired guards to prevent fare evasion who they’ve caught not doing anything (because they were sleeping), or even worse, _assisting_ fare evaders by holding the gates open. Yup, that’s right, they’re _paying extra_ for the privilege of being ripped off! OK, and that’s an interesting topic, however in reducing air pollution, with MTA being the major alternative free ridership seems to be a feature, not a bug which begs the question about pollution vs fare and what happens if the fare is eliminated, but alas that would be another topic to explore, but not totally unrelated, as the shifting of cost from the riders of MTA to that of the producers of pollution seem to be what we are talking about here. ---
**Author:** ![md-2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@md-2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md-2000)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2025, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congestion-pricing-reduced-air-pollution/1018792/10 "2025-05-26T14:53:52Z")
> [@Spiderman](#): > > This was a cash grab by the MTA. Actually, this is a symptom of cheap politicians not looking out for the common good. (and I’ll say no more in GQ). The cost of new subways and other infrastructure in a congested city is astounding. NYC, doubly so. The city (like every other city in the world) needs the help of regional(state) and national government to pay for major construction, in this case IIRC the rest of the Second Avenue subway. (No different that the way Toronto or Vancouver have to beg their province and Ottawa for enough money for their transit projects). The federal money promised for the second phase of 2nd Ave subway by the federal government is contingent on New York State providing a concommittant amount. They had to do so shortly, or the federal offer would expire (and what are the odds today the offer would be renewed?). New York State’s solution was to ding the people using Manhattan roads, rather than make the whole state pay for it. Whether it’s a better solution and who should pay and why is an interesting political debate. But it’s there for a specific reason, to pay for necessary infrastructure. I’ve driven from GW Bridge to Throgg’s Neck long before congestion pricing, and I doubt based on that level of crawling traffic whether pollution could get much worse inside or outside of the zone. (It was actually faster coming back via Queens and through the tunnels and across midtown Manhattan, although if I do that in future it will cost me). I’ve been on the 4,5,6 trains in rush hour, and no doubt an extra parallel route is long overdue. And getting from WTC to Yankee Stadium in 20 minutes by subway sure beats anything the surface can provide - subways are necessary. I don’t think the MTA can get hundreds of millions (billions) necessary by telling its guards to do their job and catch more fare cheats. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2025, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congestion-pricing-reduced-air-pollution/1018792/11 "2025-05-26T15:45:09Z")
I didn’t mean to restart the debate about the whole congestion pricing, but I suppose that was inevitable. I don’t understand the point about it being too soon to tell about pollution. Surely they can compare the amount of CO, ozone and PM2.5 in some period from this year with the same period of a year ago. Or with an average of the last few years. Or if they think the pandemic would skew things, an average of the last few years before it. ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2025, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congestion-pricing-reduced-air-pollution/1018792/12 "2025-05-26T19:13:52Z")
This whole thing started because the MTA needed more money (& if you look at the law, this toll _must_ raise $1 billion; yet at the same time, they’re losing at least 80% of that amount thru waste, fraud & theft). If the whole underlying premise is BS then I would expect their ‘studies’ to be BS as well. As **Measure\_for\_Measure** ’s chart shows, Citibike trips are up in & out of the zone but somehow traffic outside of the zone is _not_ worse? I’ve heard good luck getting on street parking in the 60s, that people are driving to right outside the zone, parking, & then biking into lower Manhattan. If this was truly about congestion, why change the same amount on weekends when there is less traffic & why charge anything overnight when there is virtually no traffic? > [@md-2000](#): > > I’ve driven from GW Bridge to Throgg’s Neck long before congestion pricing, and I doubt based on that level of crawling traffic whether pollution could get much worse inside or outside of the zone. (It was actually faster coming back via Queens and through the tunnels and across midtown Manhattan, although if I do that in future it will cost me). I have too. The only way to get on/off The Island now is to pay an extra $18 in tolls. There is, in theory one other way going eastbound, that’s to take the GW & then surface streets thru the Bronx & Queens to avoid the extra “Throgstone/Whiteneck” combo, which is an extra $22.38. That of course is much longer as it’s surface streets & traffic lights & more exhaust in those neighborhoods. The GW is _always_ backed up more than the tunnels when I go thru. Of course I could go the southern route, thru Staten Island & over the Verrazzano, which also incurs the same extra $22.38 & then traffic jams on the Belt. Has anyone done a study of extra traffic on the Belt before & after congestion pricing went in to see how much worse it is now? While it may have eliminated some traffic going to Manhattan it will only push traffic going _thru_ Manhattan elsewhere. Where are the MTA studies showing how much worse the outer boros congestion is? ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2025, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congestion-pricing-reduced-air-pollution/1018792/13 "2025-05-26T21:40:38Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > I don’t understand the point about it being too soon to tell about pollution. Surely they can compare the amount of CO, ozone and PM2.5 in some period from this year with the same period of a year ago. Or with an average of the last few years. Or if they think the pandemic would skew things, an average of the last few years before it. Well we have estimates from google’s driving data. And pollution has declined: > The New York City health department’s readings of PM2.5, [one air quality measure](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/12/02/climate/air-pollution-compare-ar-ul.html), improved citywide the first three months of this year compared with the same period in 2024. The improvement was more pronounced within the congestion zone, but… > it’s too early to attribute that to the program, or to know if that’s a lasting pattern, experts said. Those pesky experts, always demanding statistical significance! Furthermore: > If a downward trend in emissions showed up over the long term, it would mirror what happened in other cities after they put in congestion pricing. In London, [rates of health problems aggravated by car pollution, like asthma, declined](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/26/climate/congestion-pricing-ulez-london-pollution.html). So we’ve dropped an anvil out of an airplane. The ocean is below. Will it make a splash? Hard to say. There might be confounding effects. There are lots of splashes in the ocean: not all are from falling anvils. We would need to drop 20 anvils out of the plane to be sure. * * * > [@Spiderman](#): > > Where are the MTA studies showing how much worse the outer boros congestion is? Gifted NYT article: > **[Here Is Everything That Has Changed Since Congestion Pricing Started in New York](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/05/11/upshot/congestion-pricing.html?unlocked_article_code=1.KE8.KEQ3.CuavM-tSFWJA&smid=url-share)** > > Fewer cars. Faster travel. Less honking. And some questions we still can’t answer. > One major fear about congestion pricing is that it would improve traffic in the zone simply by pushing cars and congestion elsewhere. But so far, it appears that hasn’t happened. > According to Department of Transportation data, speeds in adjacent neighborhoods north of 60th Street in Manhattan and just across the river in Brooklyn and Queens, as well as in the rest of the city, have been flat or slightly faster than last year, depending on the time of day. Similar worries about the Bronx have not materialized. > the number of vehicles traveling daily on the Cross Bronx Expressway was down slightly in January through April, compared with last year, according to [the New York State Department of Transportation](https://nysdottrafficdata.drakewell.com/calendar_alt.asp?node=NYSDOT_CCS&cosit=010003000000). And speeds were up about 2 to 3 percent during weekday work hours. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2026, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congestion-pricing-reduced-air-pollution/1018792/14 "2026-01-02T00:51:20Z")
Answering my own question. A recent study for the first 6 months of Congestion Pricing indicates pollution in Manhattan decreased 22%. > **[Wowza — NYC Congestion Pricing Cut Pollution 22% In Just 6 Months! -...](https://cleantechnica.com/2025/12/31/wowza-nyc-congestion-pricing-cut-pollution-22-in-just-6-months/)** > > Support CleanTechnica's work through a Substack subscription or on Stripe. It took years, but New York City (NYC) finally implemented congestion pricing on January 5, 2025. (That’s 22 years after London first implemented it.) Aimed at cutting... ---
**Author:** ![md-2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@md-2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md-2000)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2026, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congestion-pricing-reduced-air-pollution/1018792/15 "2026-01-03T02:26:49Z")
> [@Spiderman](#): > > thru the Bronx & Queens to avoid the extra “Throgstone/Whiteneck” combo, which is an extra $22.38. That of course is much longer as it’s surface streets & traffic lights & more exhaust in those neighborhoods. Is there a toll through and across Throg’s Neck? I haven’t driven that for several years, but I thought I only paid to cross the GW bridge. (and then again through the two tunnels in and out of Manhattan midtown on the way back). Is there a toll booth on the Alexander Hamilton bridge the other way into Manhattan on I-95 or do they just have those EZpass readers on the overhead trusses? ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2026, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congestion-pricing-reduced-air-pollution/1018792/16 "2026-01-03T03:44:40Z")
> [@md-2000](#): > > Is there a toll through and across Throg’s Neck? I haven’t driven that for several years, but I thought I only paid to cross the GW bridge. (and then again through the two tunnels in and out of Manhattan midtown on the way back). Yes, & on it’s sister bridge, the Whitestone. Those toll may be even more than the congestion pricing going thru Manhattan, plus the wasted time on the always-backed up GW. At off-peak hours it may be $8.94 _more_ than congestion pricing > [@md-2000](#): > > Is there a toll booth on the Alexander Hamilton bridge the other way into Manhattan on I-95 or do they just have those EZpass readers on the overhead trusses? No, that one is free. ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2026, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congestion-pricing-reduced-air-pollution/1018792/17 "2026-01-05T16:30:05Z")
> [@Spiderman](#): > > Yes, & on it’s sister bridge, the Whitestone. Those toll may be even more than the congestion pricing going thru Manhattan, plus the wasted time on the always-backed up GW. At off-peak hours it may be $8.94 _more_ than congestion pricing The above was correct when I typed it but tolls went up yesterday by 84¢ so now it may be as much as $9.78 more than going thru Manhattan each way, which is on top of the (now) $23.30 Hudson River crossing toll. **NOTE:** If you do not have the ‘right’ EZ-Pass, you pay the same as someone w/o EZ-Pass & the toll-by-mail rates. ---
**Author:** ![md-2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@md-2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md-2000)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2026, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congestion-pricing-reduced-air-pollution/1018792/18 "2026-01-05T17:55:19Z")
> [@Spiderman](#): > > Yes, & on it’s sister bridge, the Whitestone. Those toll may be even more than the congestion pricing going thru Manhattan, plus the wasted time on the always-backed up GW. At off-peak hours it may be $8.94 _more_ than congestion pricing When did they add EZ Pass on the Throg’s Neck? I’m trying to remember if I noted that back before 2020. The EZ-pass came with the rental car. ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2026, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congestion-pricing-reduced-air-pollution/1018792/19 "2026-01-05T18:43:20Z")
[Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Throgs_Neck_Bridge) states that EZ-Pass started in 1996 & they went cashless on Sept 30, 2017 with booths being gradually dismantled. I don’t remember seeing them in quite some time.