Congestion Pricing Changes Change Patterns, Volumes of Heavy Freight Vehicles in Lower Manhattan
A pair of studies indicate that congestion pricing, which debuted in Manhattan on January 5, 2025, has affected the number of trucks traveling on local streets, as well as their speed, efficiency, and safety.
The first, by Geotab, a firm specializing in telematics (the use of technology to gather data about vehicle movements) finds that “commercial fleets have undergone a notable operational shift. Rather than avoiding Lower Manhattan, operators have increased vehicle trip efficiency by an average of 15 percent to offset the costs of entering the zone.”
The Geotab report, “How Commercial Fleets Adapted to NYC Congestion Pricing After 12 months,” released in March, tracked more than 50,000 commercial vehicle trips. It documented that the number of such vehicles entering the congestion zone (which charges most commercial trucks between $14 and $22) actually increased slightly, but that each of these vehicles are making more trips once inside the boundary (south of 60th Street) than before the program began. “On an average day in 2025, we observed 908 unique commercial vehicles entering the zone compared to 891 in 2024—a modest less-than-two percent increase. However, each vehicle is making more trips: 4.6 trips per vehicle per day in 2025 versus 4.0 in 2024, a 15 percent jump.”
“Those vehicles are being used far more intensively,” the report notes, adding, “while commercial vehicles are idling less per trip, their total daily idle time has increased slightly because they are making more trips per day.”
Among other findings, the Geotab analysis reports, “37 percent of roadways within the congestion zone experienced faster average speeds,” but, “despite improvements in some corridors, 46 percent of roads showed no significant change in speed, and 16 percent actually became slower.”
“One year into congestion pricing, commercial vehicle operators appear to be adapting rather than avoiding the zone entirely,” the authors conclude.
A second analysis, the “Congestion Relief Zone Tolling First Evaluation Report” was published in January by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), the agency overseeing the tolling program. This report cites metrics that contrast with the Geotab report, finding that “average truck speeds have increased since tolling began. Specifically, between January and October, truck speeds on roads in and around the [congestion zone] have improved by an average of 5.6 percent year-over-year.”
The MTA report also notes that in 2025, “there were 110 crashes involving trucks in the [congestion zone],” which represents “a 21 percent decrease over the same period in 2024, during which there were 140 crashes involving trucks.”
The second analysis also conflicts with Geotab’s findings about the overall volume of truck traffic, citing, “23,800 trucks per day in October of 2025. Compared to pre-tolling baselines, this represents a modest decrease of approximately 500 fewer truck entries per day or a two percent reduction in truck entries compared to estimates of October of 2024.”