NYC’s new pollution report proves congestion pricing was a ‘money grab’ all along: critics

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A new city report that found congestion pricing failed to reduce air pollution in Manhattan — as backers claimed it would — proves the $9 toll on drivers was just a “money grab” to fund mass transit, opponents argued Tuesday.

The analysis released by the Department of Health found that the toll to enter Manhattan south of 60th Street did not reduce air pollution in the congestion zone, despite an 11% drop in car trips compared to before the tax was implemented.

“Did congestion pricing affect air quality in the congestion relief zone? No,” the report said.

Kathryn Freed, a Lower East Side resident and member of New Yorkers Against Congestion Pricing Tax, which sued the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to block the toll, said the report has changed nothing in terms of pollution.

“There hasn’t been any change. Supporters said there would be less pollution if traffic went down in Manhattan. Apparently there’s no environmental benefit at all,” said Freed, a former state judge and councilwoman.

“How can they say traffic went down but not air pollution?”

At a press conference in January, Gov. Kathy Hochul boasted that “pollution is down more than 20% in one year” because of congestion pricing.

Hochul initially paused congestion pricing in 2024, but then signed off on it after the November election and it went into effect in January 2025, overcoming opposition from President Trump and lawsuits.

“It was all bullsh-t. It was to put money in the MTA’s pocket,” said Vinnie DiMino, owner of the Sea Breeze Fish Market on Ninth Avenue, near the Lincoln Tunnel.

“The report just proved it wasn’t about air pollution. It was all about transit. It’s all a lie – the Democratic politicians lie.”

He fumed, “I feel like I have been robbed. It cost me $50-$60 a day to go back and forth, in and out of the [congestion] zone for deliveries. They are killing us.”

The toll is scheduled to rise to $12 in 2028 and $15 in 2031.

Manhattan resident Jill Bowman, who drives to Brooklyn and New Jersey several times a week, said, “We know it’s bullish-t but we can’t do anything about it.

“It’s not about saving lives. It’s about making money,” she said.

Alex Pichado, an Uber driver for 10 years, added, “If there is no change [in air pollution], they should stop it. There is no reason to continue with it.”

The DOH report also said that “pollution levels were not significantly different because of congestion pricing” in environmental justice zones outside Manhattan, such as in the South Bronx

Supporters of congestion pricing said that’s actually good news, because environmental studies conducted before the toll was implemented projected that diversion of traffic to avoid the levy could boost pollution in those areas.

A report released in March claimed that pollution did worsen in Bronx neighborhoods.

“Opponents of congestion pricing said there would be hotspots for increased pollution. That has not happened,” said John Kaehny, executive director of Reinvent Albany, a pro-mass transit watchdog group.

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Kaehny’s group supported congestion pricing to reduce traffic and to fund the MTA, but did not promote the pollution reduction argument, because as the DOH report noted, auto traffic makes up only about 14% of particulate matter emissions and 20% of nitric oxide emissions in the atmosphere.

“That congestion pricing would only have a small impact on air quality is consistent” with prior environmental impact statements on the toll’s consequences, the report said.

“Whoever was hyping the air pollution was wrong from the beginning,” Kaehny said.

Critics of the congestion toll in the outer boroughs remained skeptical.

Staten Island Borough President Vito Fossella, a plaintiff in the lawsuit to block congestion, noted that truck traffic has increased in his borough, and questioned how the report could say pollution hasn’t.

“The report reaffirms that congestion pricing was nothing but a money grab. Just come out and say it,” he said.

But the MTA, which operates the congestion toll and collects the revenue to fund its buses and trains, said the pollution report proves the program is working.

“Before we turned the cameras on, there was concern about the potential for increased pollution caused by drivers looking to avoid the toll,” MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber said in a statement about the city report.

“As this study confirms, that didn’t happen, and congestion pricing is already funding additional investments to further improve air quality.”