New Yorkers are traveling much faster along Manhattan's bridges and tunnels since the city implemented its controversial congestion pricing plan earlier this month, according to the latest traffic data.
During the morning rush hour, speeds from New Jersey through the Holland Tunnel, the main route under the Hudson River to Manhattan, nearly doubled from a year ago, to 28 mph. Speeds from the Manhattan Bridge to Brooklyn increase from 13 mph to 23 mph at night.
If these trends continue, motorists willing to pay $4.50 to $14.40 in tolls to enter congested areas in the heart of America's busiest cities will save thousands of hours each year they currently waste crawling through smoky tunnels or clogged bridges.
New York's congestion pricing plan, which takes effect on January 5, is designed to reduce traffic and fund $15 billion in much-needed public transportation improvements.
The toll applies to vehicles entering Manhattan's "congestion relief zone" below 60th Street, a large area of the island that includes Midtown, Greenwich Village, SoHo and the area around Wall Street. Most passenger cars entering the area now pay a toll of $9, trucks $14.40 and motorcycles $4.50. Some cars, including emergency vehicles, are exempt.
The plan would mean New York joins London, Milan, Singapore and Stockholm in a small club of big cities with congestion charges. London launched the scheme in 2003, and traffic in the area fell by 14% in the first year. Other cities also saw declines of more than 20%.
Data provided to the Financial Times by traffic tracking company Inrix, compiled from anonymized GPS from vehicles, mobile devices and road sensors, shows the increase in speeds in New York. The data includes speeds on various routes around the city at different times of day, before and after the toll scheme starts.
"Thankfully, access points in Manhattan are few and far between and limited to bridges and tunnels, so you can really get a feel for what's going on," said Inrix analyst Bob Pishue.
Seven of the eight bridges and tunnels examined experienced significant acceleration during at least one peak hour. Three bridges leading into Manhattan that do not connect congested areas did not experience similar speed increases.
A Financial Times analysis of hourly traffic data from New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority also showed fewer vehicles in the affected tunnels during peak hours. Bridges and tunnels outside the area carry more vehicles.
An MTA report this week also showed significant reductions in travel times, including a 30%-40% reduction in vehicle times entering Manhattan's business district. The survey also found that city buses were traveling faster and had slightly higher passenger numbers.
The Congestion Pricing Tracking Project, in which college students brothers Benjamin and Joshua Moshes monitor their commute times through Google Maps, showed that rush hour at the Holland Tunnel dropped from 20 minutes before tolls to 9 this week. minute.
"We're very confident we're going to see dramatic changes to those bridges and tunnels that lead to congestion areas," said Benjamin Moshe.
Lewis Lehe, an assistant professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, found that drivers in other cities that implemented congestion Philadelphia responded more strongly to the introduction of tolls than to subsequent price increases—he put This idea is called "resilience at introduction."
Loech was "shocked" by the scale of the impact early data from New York showed, but warned it would take time to fully understand the impact of the new tolls.
At 5 p.m. on a recent weekday, just one car was waiting at a traffic light near the entrance to the Holland Tunnel in lower Manhattan, which until recently would have been clogged for blocks. Gone are the cheeky crossing guards who used to guard crossings. The speed through the tunnel increased by almost 50%.