Monday’s Headlines: Too Early to Tell Edition

The Times continued its skepticism about congestion pricing over the weekend with a deeply underreported and irresponsible story claiming that central business district tolling has already brought more pollution and traffic to The Bronx.

Setting aside that the Times has consistently joined the New York Post in an ongoing campaign to question the new kid on the block, congestion pricing, rather than the cars that for 100 years have unleashed gridlock and pollution. (The Post’s entry into this bizarre genre this weekend was an editorial calling on incoming Federal Transit Administration leader Marc Molinaro to kill congestion pricing — even though it is congestion pricing that is helping to fund transit.)

The story had less credibility than a no-parking sign in front of an NYPD precinct house: Citing (but not linking to) “preliminary data from the first two weeks of congestion pricing,” the Times claimed that “afternoon travel times on major highways and expressways in the Bronx had increased by 9 percent during the first two weeks after tolling started, compared with the same time period in 2024. There was also a 2 percent decrease in travel times in the mornings.”

What highways? The Times doesn’t say. And hasn’t traffic of all kind been on the rise nationwide since the depth of the pandemic, as the chart below shows? The Times didn’t bother looking at that fact (for all we know, congestion pricing is reducing the increase in traffic — as that 2-percent decrease in morning travel times might be suggesting).

Indeed, the same firm on which the Times relied for its story had reported last year that traffic was up in New York City between 2023 and 2024. Car and truck traffic is the problem across our region, so blaming congestion pricing — which will fund transit and reduce car use — seems to be far-fetched at this time.

That said, if congestion pricing ends up making pollution worse in The Bronx, we will be the first to demand that the air gets cleaned, as we did here and here and here and here. But our read of this alarmist Times story is that it is simply too early to tell.

In other transportation news from a busy weekend that seemed to center on the future of our nation:

• Speaking of flimsy stories, here was the Post’s effort to link tariffs against Canada to its ongoing attacks on tolls.
• There was lots of coverage of the U.S. Department of Transportation memo saying that forthcoming federal funds will be doled out to communities with higher fertility or marriage rates. (Streetsblog, NYDN)
• We hate placards, but when cabbies gotta go, they gotta go! That said, how about we build proper public bathrooms before we absolve taxi drivers of all parking violations. (NY Post, Gothamist)
• On the other hand, speaking of free parking, we are reminded that absolute placard corrupts absolutely: The NY Post reported over the weekend that two NYPD detectives have sued alleging by they were harassed for investigating corruption inside the department. One of the officials who’s named in the suit is none other than Deputy Inspector Raymond Festino, who is well known to Streetsblog readers:

• Here’s yet another example of how driving makes people crazy. (NY Post)
• Mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani talked to the self-styled New York Editorial Board and had nice things to say about Janette Sadik-Khan, buses, expanding Fair Fares, and Bill “Best Mayor of My Lifetime” de Blasio.
• Gothamist’s Liam Quigley had a fresh take on Trump’s tariffs: they may affect the city’s garbage cans.
• Killed for crossing a street: Pedestrian Kevin Thoral was fatally struck by a truck driver in Queens. (NYDN)
• Advocates are pushing Gov. Hochul and legislative leaders to fund the MTA’s next capital plan, lest the subway start decaying. (amNY)
• And elected officials also pushed back on reports that President Trump is going to withdraw federal support for congestion pricing (amNY), but Hell Gate had the definitive headline: “Who Will Protect the MTA from Donald Trump?”
• The NYPD says that high-speed chases have already dropped, even before Commissioner Jessica Tisch’s new policy takes effect on Feb. 1, as Streetsblog revealed in an exclusive last month. (The City)
• And, finally, I was on the Bike Talk podcast talking about congestion pricing.