Some customers have recorded about paying the new $ 9 toll to drive to John’s Pizzeria, an institution in Greenwich Village, in the heart of the congestion price zone. A fixed normal thing about Long Island swore that he would not in principle pay and has not returned.
But four months after the toll program, lines are still forming under the red canopy of the famous pizzeria and the conversation has continued inside. “I really feel that the news cycle is over,” said Kevin Jackson, the manager of the restaurant. But he added: “It’s still a bitter pill, don’t get me wrong. I am against it.”
The toll, which is aimed at unclogging the notorious traffic jams of Manhattan while collecting money for mass land food, seems to work. Traffic is down, living work traffic is faster and Mass Transit Ridership has risen. Although a majority of New Yorkers does not yet have to heat up, recent polls have shown that there is a shift on the road: congeste prizes quickly become a fact of life.
In order to gauge the changing sentiment among business owners, employees and their customers, reporters went for the New York Times from door to door past a piece of Bleecker Street, between Sixth Avenue and Sevth Avenue South, in Greenwich Village. The bustling corridor is the home of shops and eateries, including John’s Pizzeria and Murray’s Cheese, a bicycle shop, a charter school, a church and a small park.
For two days, the Times asked 40 companies about the effects of congestie prices on their customers, employees, sales, deliveries and costs. Interviews were conducted with owners, managers and employees, depending on who was available. A majority, 25 companies, said that congestie prices had not had a significant impact. Ten said the toll has damaged their business, and four said it was useful. They refused to comment.
Most companies were largely insulated from the toll because their customers arrive mainly at Subway and bus, or live close enough to walk. However, some companies have lost customers who drove from outside Manhattan, and many said their delivery costs have increased.
But in the past few weeks, in Manhattan, congestie prizes has largely been overshadowed as a subject of concern due to broader economic trends in Washington, said Jessica Walker, the president of the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce. Many more companies, she added, worry about the rate and immigration policy of President Trump.
“Nobody thinks about congeste pairs when things can get much worse,” she said.
Many past Bleecker Street who opposed the toll reluctantly expressed dismissal, and companies have begun to adapt, as they have previously offered to other long -disputed policy, such as the smoking ban of the city in restaurants and bars. When asked if they paid the toll, many people shrugged and said: what are you going to do?
More New Yorkers might come around. In March, a poll by Siena College showed that 42 percent of city voters said that the program should remain; A similar poll in December, before the toll began, discovered that only 32 percent supported it.
“I heard a lot more complaining before the congestion prizes came in force than afterwards,” said Rob Byrnes, the president of the East Midtown Partnership, a district for company improvement that extends over the toll zone. The program, which started on January 5, charges most drivers $ 9 during Peak Traffic to enter Manhattan south of 60th Street.
Mr Byrnes is still not a fan of the program, he said, partly because the traffic in his eye has not clearly improved. But among the companies he represents in his district – including showrooms for home design, hotels, restaurants and Bloomingdale’s – relatively few have merged with the changes since the toll cameras were engaged in January.
Parking garages in the vicinity of the toll line and restaurants remain some of the loudest critics, he said, but the complaints are not as frequent as they ever were.
“The negative impact we had expected has not been there, or at least not to the extent we had feared,” said Byrnes, referring to widespread fears that congestie prices would chase customers away.
Early data suggest that the tolls have not reduced total foot traffic on commercial corridors. In March, 45.6 million people visited business districts in the congestonone, 3.1 percent more than in the same period last year, according to the New York City Economic Development Corporation. About 80,000 fewer vehicles per day came in the toll zone that month, compared to historical standards, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which manages the Massadoervoer of New York and operates the program.
Among the companies in Bleecker Street, De Tol has been a blessing for Brompton Junction, which sells folding bikes. More people come in to view the bikes that can be worn on trains and can be stopped under desks, said Crystal Aguilar, 25, a sales technician. They include those new bicycles and commuters that want to save money on the toll. The bikes cost more than $ 1,100.
But right next door, an owner of O. Ottomanelli & SonsAn old-school meat market, said that he has seen the opposite a decrease in customers of around 20 percent, which he attributed to congestie prices. There are fewer orders from New Jersey drivers who used to come forward and then came in for pickups, said Jerry Ottomanelli, 83, who runs the market with his two brothers.
Many companies have also found that they indirectly pay the congestion -tol as their suppliers pass on the costs. At John’s Pizzeria, a beer distributor now charges a congestion costs of $ 5 per barrel, which yields $ 65 extra $ 65 every week.
Arsinio Hasanaj, 54, a co-owner of Trattoria Pesce Pasta, saw a $ 2 congestion allowance that was tackled on a receipt from a linen seller. Other suppliers have just increased their delivery prices. Mr. Hasanaj now pays around $ 100 more a week for deliveries, because the restaurant is pressed by rising food and operating costs. “We will increase our prices soon,” he said. “We can’t afford that.”
The toll has continued with a number of critics, including Mr Trump, who has promised to kill the program and claims that it will harm the local economy.
The US Department of Transport repeatedly ordered New York to end the program, With threats to withhold federal financing For many transport projects at the end of this month.
The MTA has sued it to block Washington’s intervention. Government Kathy Hochul, with reference to the successes of the program, has sworn to make it run. The state counts on the toll to finance $ 15 billion in improvements in the mass transit system of the region.
Even with congestie prices, traffic can sometimes still back up this busy piece of Bleecker, which has two vehicle strips and a cycle path. But some companies said that they had noticed fewer cars and are less stationary and honking than before. And some pedestrians said it was easier to navigate through the street.
According to A Times Analysis, complaints from vehicle -related sound complaints at the 311 Hotline of the city fell by almost half of 2024 to 2025, according to A Times Analysis.
Nick Voulgaris III, the owner of Kerber’s Farm on Long Island, that has A café on Bleeckersaid that he was initially skeptical about congestie prices, but was pleasantly surprised by the traffic benefits. The café, which attracts a stream of pedestrians, has not seen any change in business.
Mr. Voulgaris, 51, who lives in the neighborhood and lives to the farm a few times a week, has stopped driving so often. Congst prices “was probably the push I needed to just do the train,” he said.
For some employees, however, congestie prices has made a little more difficult to make Bleecker. Lyanna Curis, 20, who makes salads at Sweetgreen, takes the Padtrain from Jersey City. Since the congestie prices started, she said, the trains are full. “Don’t even think about finding a chair,” she said.
Ridnership on Path Trains, who connect Noord -New Jersey and Manhattan over the Hudson River, rose nearly 5.7 percent to 13,423.192 trips for the first three months of 2025 compared to the same period the year before, according to the year before, according to the before facts From the port authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the system.
Similarly, the New York City metro has also increased. From 5 January to 21 April, the average rider in the metro has risen by 8.2 percent to 3.4 million, compared to the same period last year, according to an analysis of MTA data. But there is still room for growth week Ridership is about three-quarters of the prepandemical norm.
At John’s Pizzeria, Mr. Jackson lives in life that complain about the congestion -tol. Mr Jackson, 56, who lives in Manalapan, NJ, has to pay the $ 9 himself to come and work.
He eats the costs of the toll, he said, because he feels that he has no choice. He works late and driving is more convenient than public transport.
“If you live and work in the city, you are so used to being beaten together with all the costs, and the toll, and the tickets and the summons and the violations,” he said. “It’s just one again.”
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