Good morning. It’s Tuesday. Today we’ll take a look at congestion pricing, now that it has passed the four-month mark. We’ll also look at a lawsuit that challenges short-term rentals at a hotel that offered rooms on sites like Airbnb.
And, later today, this week’s edition of our limited-run newsletter about the race for mayor will come your way from members of our politics team. They will look at the 30-second television commercial that cost former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s campaign $622,000, and they will demystify ranked-choice voting.
Credit…Dave Sanders for The New York Times
It’s hard to change habits, but congestion pricing has done it.
My colleagues at The Upshot looked at every way of measuring the difference congestion pricing has made that they could think of. They concluded that charging drivers $9 to enter Manhattan has achieved the program’s two main objectives: to bring down congestion and to bring in revenue for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
There are fewer cars. There are fewer car crashes and fewer injuries. There are more passengers on mass transit, in taxis and on Citi Bikes. There was $45 million in net revenue in March, putting the program on pace to generate roughly $500 million in its first year.
There is still some grumbling, but congestion pricing has become a part of life in New York, even as the Trump administration continues its efforts to kill it.
