Gov. Hochul’s cross-town bus ride Friday had been planned as an act of resistance — a demonstration of the lack of traffic, scheduled for the day the feds had tried to order her to turn the state’s congestion tolling system off.
Instead, less than a day after President Trump’s transportation secretary unexpectedly walked the deadline back, Hochul did a victory lap proclaiming traffic down in the congestion zone with the program set to survive at least 30 more days.
“Today’s an important day,” Hochul declared at a rally in Chelsea near the end of the M14 bus line.
“The cameras are staying on — they sure as hell are,” she said to cheers from assembled transit advocates.
“This was not an easy journey — countless lawsuits, people going on television constantly berating us, saying it wouldn’t work,” Hochul said.
“I want them to come here now and feel a very different New York City,” she added. “It is not jammed and stuck in traffic, we are moving once again.”
Barry Williams/ New York Daily News
Congestion pricing readers welcome drivers on Park Ave. in Manhattan. (Barry Williams/ New York Daily News)
According to the latest data from the MTA — which administers the toll and is the beneficiary of its revenue — traffic in the congestion tolling zone was down 11% last month over 2024. Traffic on the bridge and tunnel crossings into Midtown and lower Manhattan are traveling at speeds up to 30% faster than last year.
Recent polling has found that the toll, which charges most motorists $9 a day to drive on surface streets in the tolling zone, is gaining support among city residents. The toll is charged with reducing vehicular traffic while raising money for a slate of specific MTA capital projects.
But Trump has sought to kill congestion pricing — which was adopted into state law in 2019, approved by federal regulators in 2024, and went into effect in January — since the start of his second term.
In February, Trump’s transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, claimed he could instantly revoke a federal authorization to initiate the toll given by the Biden administration in 2024 following a lengthy environmental review process.
The MTA immediately sued, claiming Duffy’s order was unconstitutional. The feds have yet to respond to that suit.
Duffy tried again, demanding Hochul end the program by March 21 — something the governor said she wouldn’t do absent a court order.
AP
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. (AP)
As that deadline loomed Thursday, Duffy walked back the deadline by tweet, saying New York now had 30 more days to comply — and threatening to take away federal funding if Hochul didn’t turn the cameras off.
“Know that the billions of dollars the federal government sends to New York are not a blank check,” he wrote Thursday. “Continued noncompliance will not be taken lightly.”
Asked about the Trump regime’s use of funding as a cudgel Friday, Hochul brushed it off.
“I feel confident in the long-term viability of congestion pricing, which is a significant funding source,” she said. “The threats? I think there’s always going to be threats coming out of Washington — tweets from secretaries.
“I have a direct communication line to the president,” she added. “I feel confident that we’ll find a path forward that sustains this important source of — not just revenue but a way that stimulates a quality of life and a vitality that we’ve not seen in this city for a long time.”
