Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Less Traffic, Better Transit: On Its First Anniversary, Governor Hochul Celebrates Transformational Success of Congestion Pricing

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul announced that on its one-year anniversary, New York City’s first-in-the-nation congestion pricing program has been a transformational success, reducing traffic, improving quality of life and supporting billions in transit upgrades. In its first year, congestion pricing resulted in 27 million fewer vehicles entering the Congestion Relief Zone (CRZ) of Manhattan south of 60th St, an 11 percent reduction in traffic. Reduced gridlock has improved commute times across the region, especially at crossings into the CRZ, with some drivers saving as much as 15 minutes each way. Congestion pricing has reduced emissions, made streets safer, improved quality of life, and has generated over $550 million in net revenue in its first year, allowing the MTA to proceed with $15 billion in transit improvement projects. Governor Hochul has also stood strong to defend congestion pricing from unlawful federal efforts to terminate the program. One year in, congestion pricing is working and it is legal.

VIDEO: The event is available to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264, mp4).

AUDIO: The Governor's remarks are available in audio form here.

PHOTOS: The Governor's Flickr page will have photos of the event here.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

 Good afternoon, fellow congestion pricing warriors. We're winning this battle one year into it, and I could not be prouder to be surrounded by so many true believers. The advocates, RPA, Riders Alliance and elected officials who've been acknowledged already. I want to thank them for being shoulder to shoulder as we tackled the onslaught of fights that started just one year ago. We know we won one year ago, but literally, literally 40 days later we get the message from this guy in Washington and he says, honest to God, I saw this picture and I told my team, you really shouldn't do things like that. It's not very nice. And they said, no, no, no — the White House put this picture out. And I was pissed. I said, as you heard, I'm still angry when I think about it, “We're not laboring under a King.” But it was that image that day that I believe triggered the no Kings rallies all across America. So, we stood up here in New York, we showed who we are.

And yes, the cameras are staying on. But now my friends, the results are extraordinary beyond what we could have expected. And I am so proud to run through some of these for you because you should just be saying them in your sleep. And if there's any naysayers out there, tell me who they are and we'll have a conversation. I'll meet you at my local diner because we took on…. no, that's all right. I talked to everybody. I talk to everybody, you know that. We said enough with gridlock, it must end. Enough with emergency vehicles being stuck in traffic, that must end. Enough with wasting people's valuable time, time away from their families and their jobs and everything else they want to do in New York — just have a good time. And enough with polluting our air with all the emissions and enough with underfunding the transit system that is the lifeline of this entire region.

So, we got it done. We changed how people in this great city and the region live, how they breathe, how they act, and now the results are in. Traffic entering the congestion zone is down 11 percent. And this is incredible – 27 million fewer cars going into that zone over the last year, 27 million. And the air is cleaner — pollution is down more than 20 percent in one year. People with asthma are breathing better. Little kids don't have to worry about this. And our streets are safer. New York City recorded its safest streets in history. That's a long time — with crashes and injuries down in the congestion zone.

And everybody who told me from the president on down, you're killing New York City. Nobody's going to come. You know, traffic's down because the place is empty. No one's there. It's like, seriously? Have you been here lately? Because Manhattan has had some of its best years, the best year for Broadway. Sales tax receipts in the area that people say would be killed by this are up six percent. I mean, people are still coming, they're still shopping, they're still spending money. And best year for office leasing. So, all the doomsayers said people are going to leave Manhattan and there'll be all these buildings that are empty. Best year for office leasing in 20 years leading the nation.

So, we're moving. Speeds are up, buses are faster. Transit ridership is up in the zone as well. But guess what? We gave you some time back. How does 25 percent faster coming through the Lincoln Tunnel sound? Oh, let me top that. How about 51 percent faster coming through the Holland Tunnel? About 21, 25 percent faster going across our bridges into Brooklyn and Queens. That's time in your life that's precious. And I don't think anyone could have predicted that before congestion pricing, about 117 hours were lost commuting for New Yorkers just stuck in traffic. Five solid days outta your life. And now we have more time. How does it feel, everybody? It feels good to have time, right? Feels good. Feels good. You can focus on what's important, and I want to give a tribute, a shout out to all the true believers who decades ago talked about this. And some are not with us here today, some have passed on, but let's reflect on what it takes sometimes to get something done. It shouldn't take that long, but those who never gave up believing, they never gave up believing.

I remember Dan Doctoroff talking about this a long time ago. I remember Kathy Wylde has been talking about this a long time. There's so many, I can't give all these shout outs, but all of you, everybody, there’s an incredible number of people. Who just said, “I believe in this idea. I believe in this city, and I believe we can get it done.” And we did. So, thank you. Thank you to our heroes.

So, we had years of debate, years of study, litigation. Oh my god, how much I had to spend on litigation on this. The lawsuits, the critics saying it couldn't be done. So for those of you who are keeping score, I've got more than 10 lawsuits. We have a pretty good record. Every time it's gone before a judge, the judge says, “No, no. The state is right. MTA is right. They're on the right path. They're doing this legally.” And so why are we here? And again, later this month, guess where we'll be. We'll be back in court, defending our program once again, but we'll just keep on winning. We'll be winning so much we'll be tired of winning. So, anybody trying to kill this program, just tell it to the judge, because they're going to be on our side.

And as a reminder, there are a lot of people who really thought that this was going to result in their lives being negatively affected on Long Island, the Hudson Valley, New Jersey and others. It's a little bit quieter these days. The opposition kind of calmed down, right? Anybody notice that? It's calmed down because people like getting across the bridges faster. They like coming to the city with more time on their hands. They're happy not to sit in traffic. So to those individuals who are driving in, their quality of life has improved as well, and I'm really proud of that, and I hope they understand what this program did for them.

But lastly, this is also supposed to fund some really important progress projects. Now, when I first became Governor, no offense, no offense to you — but where were we headed? We were going off the cliff, weren't we? We were literally going off the fiscal cliff. I empowered Janno to find savings. He did it — to find ways that we could be smarter, more efficient. He did it. But I also knew that we needed to have an ambitious plan for capital projects that had never even been contemplated at the scale we're doing right now. It's extraordinary, but this program will fund $15 billion worth of those capital projects that are improving our system, improving it.

And we did a little bit cheaper too. Cut 40 percent off the cost, but getting the same $15 billion worth of projects. That is good news. That is good news. And so we're going to continue. I'm not letting up. I think this is fantastic. And it shows how when we have the audacious vision for New York that others may think about in other cities — just can't quite get it done. We know how to get things done because we're New Yorkers and we don't take no for an answer. Thank you everybody. Thank you.

Thanks to all the advocates, elected officials and those who got us to the finish line here. Let me welcome another dreamer, a big audacious thinker, someone that we're so proud to work with over the next four years, and that is our mayor, Zohran Mamdani.