Gee, What a Surprise

1 week in, and congestion pricing is already working in New York City.

Faster traffic speeds, faster mass transit, and better air.

Exactly as forecast.

This is not a surprise. This is what happens everywhere that this has been implemented.

New Yorkers are cruising much faster along Manhattan’s bridges and tunnels since their city implemented its long-debated congestion pricing plan early this month, according to newly available traffic data.

Morning rush-hour speed from New Jersey through the Holland Tunnel, a main route under the Hudson River into Manhattan, has almost doubled to 28mph compared with a year earlier. Evening speed over the Manhattan Bridge to Brooklyn has increased from 13mph to 23mph.

If these trends hold, motorists willing to pay the $4.50-$14.40 toll to enter the congestion zone in the centre of the US’s busiest city will save thousands of hours per year they currently waste crawling through smoggy tunnels or over clogged bridges. New York’s congestion-pricing scheme, which went into force on January 5, is meant to cut traffic and help fund $15bn in sorely needed improvements to local mass transit.

It's a good policy, and it works, so doubtless Trump and his Evil Minions™ will try to kill it.