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That is obviously false as seen by the actual massive drop in traffic after the congestion pricing scheme went on.
The major beneficiaries were the tradesmen that bill $150/hr and more than saved paying the fee and chopping 20-40minutes of driving off their day.
The drop doesn't look particularly massive to me at least looking at the NY/NJ MTA ezpass data for January for traffic through Lincoln and Holland tunnels. 2025 is about 7% lower 2024. Adjusting for the number of non-winter-break weekdays in Jan 2024 vs Jan 2025, I'd estimate that the actual drop in traffic is more like 10%. Still, not exactly a huge effect on traffic volume - but that 10% lower traffic volume leads to quite a bit more than a 10% drop in the time vehicles spend on Manhattan roads.
Side note: the ability to embed graphs would be super nice.
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Since they were declaring victory in the first week of the year (always lighter traffic than usual, and with a snowstorm, no less) based on comparing cherrypicked routes on those days to similar days during more normal commute periods, I know they will lie about this and claim a massive drop in traffic regardless of what actually happens.
Do you think the NJ port authority is falsifying the EZPass data they're sharing here?
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What evidence would convince you that traffic has reduced?
There would need to be an analysis by a disinterested observer. Unfortunately, there aren't any.
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Until they get sick of riding in urine soaked public transit with drug addicted homeless people. I mean there’s a reason why no one wants to ride public transit and it ain’t the cost. My city has voted on expanding it all the time no one wants it.. They don’t want the crime, the drugs, the smell.
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