The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) has released additional data on the impact of its newly implemented Congestion Relief Zone (CRZ) in the Central Business District (CBD) in New York.
Following initial statistics showing improvements in travel times for drivers and bus riders, the MTA has announced that the first three weeks since the programme’s implementation have also seen additional improvements in transit ridership, as well as a reduction of 1 million vehicles entering the zone overall.
The MTA has reported that bus riders have seen express buses from Queens, Staten Island and the Bronx save up to 10 minutes per journey, with overall improvements in reliability since January 05, 2025.
Numbers have also shown that ridership has increased by up to 21% and 7% in growth on all non-express routes, with weekday express ridership up 6% year on year.
Ridership on the X27 bus route between Bay Ridge and Manhattan has also seen significant improvements, with a bump of 15% on weekdays and 55% on weekends.
MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber, said:Before the start of congestion relief, talk of lawsuits and doubts dominated the conversation, but now it’s the undeniably positive results we’ve been seeing since week one.
Better bus service, faster drive times and safer streets are good for all New Yorkers.
Data provided by non-profit transportation coalition TRANSCOM shows that inbound trip times on all Hudson and East River crossings have improved by between 10-30% over a January baseline, with commuters travelling through the Holland Tunnel experiencing an average journey time reduction of up to 48% during peak morning hours.
Both the Williamsburg and Queensboro Bridges routes have experienced reductions in total trip times of up to 30% on average, with motorists travelling on the Long Island Expressway, Flatbush Avenue and NJ 495 all seeing improvements to overall journey times since the CRZ’s introduction.
MTA Deputy Chief of Policy and External Relations Juliette Michaelson, said:Although we were always expecting major travel time reductions from the Congestion Relief Program, it’s still exciting to see it become a reality – especially for local and express bus riders.
We’ll continue to share data on this first-in-the nation program and report on traffic patterns as people adapt to the toll.
There have also been improvements to overall subway ridership, which has seen a bump of 7.3% on weekdays and 12% on weekends when compared to January 2024, with ridership growth on the Long Island Rail Road, New Hyde Park, Douglaston, Garden City, Ronkonkoma and Woodmere stations all outpacing systemwide growth expectations.
