Early data from the student-run Congestion Pricing Tracker shows travel time through the Holland and Lincoln tunnels was down by as much as half in the first week of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s (MTA’s) Manhattan congestion pricing scheme, New Jersey Monitor reports. Traffic inside the congestion zone, however, remained largely unchanged. The tracker also recorded some “spillover” effect on alternate routes, but those increases appeared to be out-measured by traffic reductions on affected routes. Official data from the George Washington Bridge and other crossings won’t be available till next month.
MTA Chairman Janno Lieber appeared at a press conference last week to showcase the agency’s first purchase “‘unlocked’” by congestion pricing revenues, NBC News New York reports. “Lieber revealed that 265 new electric buses had been purchased, part of the MTA’s promise to put all the buses in a new energy efficient depot and cut down on the pollution from the old diesel buses. The new 40-foot, zero-emission buses will operate on routes across the city.”
An MTA press release provides additional information about the agency’s fleet electrification, including construction of the new “green” bus depot and overhead pantograph charging systems.
CBS News offers a more general overview of congestion pricing’s early days.