Manhattan Buses Got a Bit Faster in First Month of Congestion Pricing
Almost all of Manhattan’s notoriously pokey crosstown buses that run south of 60th Street have sped up — slightly — in the weeks since congestion pricing took effect, MTA data shows.
January peak-hour bus speeds for east-west lines operating within the congestion relief zone on weekdays reveals that 11 of the 13 local and Select Bus Service routes analyzed by THE CITY picked up the pace between 1 and 5% from the same period in 2024.
“There are fewer cars on the road at the time that I travel, it’s a little faster,” said Tom Florey, 53, an M50 rider who usually travels between Second and Sixth avenues. “Granted, my New York is a bit smaller than others probably, but it has helped reduce the time I spend to cross town.”
The M50, traditionally among the slowest buses in all of Manhattan, saw its average weekday speed increase by 4% in January compared to a year earlier, when it was plodding along at 4.82 miles per hour. That speed has now ticked up to just over 5 mph.
The gains from congestion pricing have been even more pronounced for express bus riders.
Commutes on Hudson River and East River crossings for several express bus routes linking the boroughs with Manhattan have, on some lines, shaved more than 15 minutes off commuting times.
Riders on local crosstown routes said they are happy with any progress.
“It really has improved and I think it’s noticeable,” Florey said Thursday morning while waiting for an eastbound bus on East 49th Street near Second Avenue.
MTA officials and transit advocates have touted speedier service for city buses — some of the slowest in the country — as among the gains from a vehicle-tolling program that’s helped unclog streets in the congestion relief zone. But it now faces an existential crisis after President Trump declared “CONGESTION PRICING IS DEAD!” on Wednesday.
Trump’s attempt to derail a years-in-the-making program that was designed to cut congestion and raise billions for transit upgrades set off an instant legal challenge from the MTA in Manhattan Federal Court.
“Crosstown buses have been the slowest in New York City since forever,” said Jaqi Cohen, the Tri-State Transportation Campaign’s director of climate & equity policy. “And in one fell swoop, we were able to do the unthinkable and speed them up simply by flipping the switch on congestion pricing.”
But the MTA data also showed that nearly all buses on Manhattan routes now move more slowly during the week than they did five years earlier — with last month’s average bus speeds for routes in the borough at 5.9 mph, down from 6 mph in 2021.
That’s in marked contrast to Staten Island buses, which are the city’s fastest, with an average of 13.9 mph in December, according to a February report from the New York City Independent Budget Office.
Janno Lieber, the MTA’s chairperson and chief executive, on Wednesday likened Manhattan’s crosstown streets to a “death zone for drivers,” while discussing how speeds have increased since the Jan. 5 launch of congestion pricing.
“Canal Street, 34th Street, 57th Street — speeds are up, up, up,” Lieber said after the head of the U.S. Department of Transportation wrote in a letter to Gov. Kathy Hochul that the Federal Highway Administration’s approval of congestion pricing “was not authorized by law.”
Lieber told NY1 Thursday morning that the vehicle-tolling scanners are not being switched off yet, while contending that the federal government “cannot unilaterally terminate the program.”
“The improvements to traffic and travel speeds were almost immediate, and New Yorkers get it, which is why you’re seeing people, you know, shift their views,” Lieber said.
Aboard an eastbound M57 bus during the Thursday morning rush, Rajas Chordiya, 23, said he’s seen a bit of a speed uptick during his daily crosstown commutes along 57th Street.
“It’s gotten like maybe five or so minutes quicker,” he said. “It’s slightly noticeable.”
Another M57 rider, Yamilet Marquez, said bus speeds would be more pronounced if enforcement efforts were more in line with those in her native Colombia.
“Drivers need to respect the bus lanes,” she said. “If the buses were able to utilize the lane as it was meant to be, then that would maximize what a bus is supposed to do.”
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