Congestion Pricing Continues a 20-Year Improvement in Air Quality Across NYC, New First -of-its-Kind Study Finds

Photo by Mo Eid on Pexels

The Most Comprehensive Evaluation to Date of Congestion Pricing’s Impact Found That Air Quality Improved Slightly or Remained Stable Across the City

No Communities, Including Environmental Justice Neighborhoods Alongside Highway Corridors, Experienced Increased Levels of Air Pollution

Reduced Congestion, Improvements in Transit System, and Investments in Environmental Justice Communities Clearly Demonstrate the Overall Benefits of the Program

Today, the New York City Health Department released its first comprehensive evaluation of the Congestion Relief Zone Tolling Program’s impact on neighborhood air quality, determining that the city’s air quality remained stable or improved slightly in the first year of congestion pricing, continuing a 20-year trend of improving air quality and declining pollution. Additionally, environmental justice communities alongside major highway corridors identified in the Congestion Relief Zone Tolling Environmental Assessment did not experience increased air pollution attributable to congestion pricing. 

The report also concluded that the reduced congestion, improvements in transit systems, and investments through the mitigation program — which directs funds toward initiatives in environmental justice communities — clearly demonstrate the overall benefit of the program.

To conduct the evaluation, the Health Department expanded its existing New York City Community Air Survey (NYCCAS) monitoring network in partnership with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), the NYC Department of Transportation, and the New York State Department of Transportation. This report builds on that long-standing work by providing the most comprehensive evaluation to date of the Congestion Relief Zone Tolling Program’s impact on air pollution.

The findings from the report reflect the long-term trend of improving air quality documented by the NYCCAS for almost 20 years. The analysis examined concentrations of four traffic-related air pollutants, fine particulate matter (PM2.5), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), nitric oxide (NO), and black carbon (BC), within the Congestion Relief Zone and in environmental justice communities where concerns had been raised about potential traffic changes — areas that include the Major Deegan Expressway, Cross Bronx Expressway, Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, Staten Island Expressway, FDR Drive, and Trans-Manhattan Expressway. Using data starting one full year before tolling began and continuing one year after, researchers were able to distinguish the effects of congestion pricing from other factors that influence air quality, such as weather, seasonal changes, and regional wildfire smoke, by using a control site that was not affected by congestion pricing and statistical modeling.

For nearly two decades, NYCCAS has monitored neighborhood-level air quality to better understand what causes differences between neighborhoods, how pollution changes over time, and how it affects health. NYCCAS has found that air quality improved dramatically in all NYC neighborhoods over the past decades, but more work is needed to mitigate traffic-related air pollution, which is linked to asthma, heart disease, stroke, and other serious health conditions. In May, the City announced a $20 million investment from the MTA to improve childhood asthma outcomes in the Bronx. This investment allows the Health Department to further support the Bronx Asthma Program and expand the Asthma Case Management Program.

The full report is available on the NYC Health Department’s website.