Some customers have griped about having to pay the new $9 toll to drive to John’s Pizzeria, a Greenwich Village institution, in the heart of the congestion pricing zone. One regular from Long Island swore he wouldn’t pay on principle and hasn’t returned.
But four months into the tolling program, lines are still forming under the red awning of the famed pizzeria and, inside, the conversation has moved on. “I really feel like that news cycle is over,” said Kevin Jackson, the restaurant’s manager. But, he added: “It’s still a bitter pill, don’t get me wrong. I’m against it.”
The toll, which aims to unclog Manhattan’s notorious traffic jams while raising funds for mass transit, appears to be working. Traffic is down, commutes are faster and mass transit ridership is up. While a majority of New Yorkers have yet to warm to the toll, recent polls have shown that there is a shift underway: Congestion pricing is quickly becoming a fact of life.
To gauge the changing sentiment among business owners, workers and their customers, reporters for The New York Times went door to door along a stretch of Bleecker Street, between Sixth Avenue and Seventh Avenue South, in Greenwich Village. The bustling corridor is home to shops and eateries, including John’s Pizzeria and Murray’s Cheese, a bike shop, a charter school, a church and a small park.
Over two days, The Times asked 40 businesses about the effects of congestion pricing on their patrons, workers, sales, deliveries and costs. Interviews were conducted with owners, managers and workers, depending on who was available. A majority, 25 businesses, said that congestion pricing has had no significant impact. Ten said the toll has hurt their business, and four said it has been beneficial. One declined to comment.
Most of the businesses were largely insulated from the toll because their customers primarily arrive by subway and bus, or live close enough to walk. However, some businesses did lose customers who drove from outside Manhattan, and many said their delivery charges have increased.
But in recent weeks, throughout Manhattan, congestion pricing has largely been overshadowed as a topic of concern by broader economic trends in Washington, said Jessica Walker, the president of the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce. Far more businesses, she added, are worried about President Trump’s tariff and immigration policies.
“Nobody’s thinking about congestion pricing, when things could get a lot worse,” she said.
Many along Bleecker Street who opposed the toll grudgingly expressed resignation, and businesses have begun to adapt, as they have before to other hotly contested policies like the city’s smoking ban at restaurants and bars. When asked whether they were paying the toll, many people shrugged and said: What are you going to do?
More New Yorkers may be coming around. In March, a Siena College poll found that 42 percent of city voters said the program should remain; a similar poll in December, before the toll began, found that only 32 percent supported it.
“I heard a lot more complaining before congestion pricing took effect, than after,” said Rob Byrnes, the president of the East Midtown Partnership, a business improvement district that straddles the tolling zone. The program, which got underway on Jan. 5, charges most drivers $9 during peak traffic to enter Manhattan south of 60th Street.
Mr. Byrnes still isn’t a fan of the program, he said, in part because traffic, to his eye, has not markedly improved. But among the businesses he represents in his district — including home décor showrooms, hotels, restaurants and Bloomingdale’s — relatively few have groused about the changes since the toll cameras turned on in January.
Parking garages near the tolling boundary and restaurants remain some of the loudest critics, he said, but the complaints are not as frequent as they once were.
“The negative impact that we anticipated has not been there, or at least not to the extent that we had feared,” Mr. Byrnes said, referring to widespread fears that congestion pricing would drive customers away.
Early data suggests that the tolls have not reduced overall foot traffic on commercial corridors. In March, 45.6 million people visited business districts inside the congestion zone, 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 entered the toll zone that month, compared with historical norms, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs New York’s mass transit and operates the program.
Among the businesses on Bleecker Street, the toll has been a boon for Brompton Junction, which sells folding bikes. More people are coming in to check out the bikes, which can be carried onto trains and tucked under desks, said Crystal Aguilar, 25, a sales technician. They include those new to biking as well as commuters who want to save money on the toll. The bikes cost more than $1,100.
But right next door, an owner of O. Ottomanelli & Sons, an old-school meat market, said he has seen the opposite — about a 20 percent drop in customers this year, which he ascribed to congestion pricing. There are fewer orders from New Jersey drivers who used to call ahead and then come in for pickups, said Jerry Ottomanelli, 83, who runs the market with his two brothers.
Many businesses have also found that they are paying the congestion toll indirectly as their suppliers pass along the cost. At John’s Pizzeria, a beer distributor now charges a congestion fee of $5 per keg, which adds up to an extra $65 each week.
Arsinio Hasanaj, 54, a co-owner of Trattoria Pesce Pasta, spotted a $2 congestion surcharge tacked onto a receipt from a linen vendor. Other vendors have just raised their delivery prices. Mr. Hasanaj now pays about $100 more a week for deliveries as the restaurant is being squeezed by rising food and operating costs. “We will increase our prices soon,” he said. “We cannot afford that.”
The toll has continued to rankle some critics, including Mr. Trump, who has promised to kill the program, claiming that it will hurt the local economy.
The U.S. Department of Transportation has repeatedly ordered New York to end the program, with threats to withhold federal funding for many transportation projects starting late this month.
The M.T. A. has sued to block Washington’s intervention. Gov. Kathy Hochul, citing the program’s successes, has vowed to keep it running. The state is counting on the toll to finance $15 billion of improvements to the region’s mass transit system.
Even with congestion pricing, traffic can still back up at times along this busy stretch of Bleecker, which has two vehicle lanes and a bike lane. But some businesses said they had noticed fewer cars and less idling and honking than before. And some pedestrians said it was easier to navigate the street.
In the congestion zone, vehicle-related noise complaints to the city’s 311 hotline have dropped by nearly half from 2024 to 2025, according to a Times analysis.
Nick Voulgaris III, the owner of Kerber’s Farm on Long Island, which has a cafe on Bleecker, said he was initially skeptical about congestion pricing but has been pleasantly surprised by the traffic benefits. The cafe, which draws a stream of pedestrians, has seen no change in business.
Mr. Voulgaris, 51, who lives nearby and commutes out to the farm a couple of times a week, has stopped driving so frequently. Congestion pricing “was probably the nudge I needed to just do the train,” he said.
For some workers, however, congestion pricing has made getting to Bleecker a little tougher. Lyanna Curis, 20, who makes salads at Sweetgreen, takes the PATH train from Jersey City. Ever since congestion pricing started, she said, the trains have been packed. “Don’t even think about finding a seat,” she said.
Ridership on PATH trains, which link northern New Jersey and Manhattan across the Hudson River, rose nearly 5.7 percent to 13,423,192 rides for the first three months of 2025 compared with the same period the year before, according to data from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the system.
Similarly, New York City subway ridership has also increased. From Jan. 5 to April 21, average ridership on the subway has risen 8.2 percent to 3.4 million, compared with the same period last year, according to an analysis of M.T.A. data. But there is still room for growth — weekday ridership is around three-quarters of the prepandemic norm.
At John’s Pizzeria, Mr. Jackson has empathized with his customers who complain about the congestion toll. Mr. Jackson, 56, who lives in Manalapan, N.J., has to pay the $9 himself to come to work.
He is eating the cost of the toll, he said, because he feels like he has no choice. He works late and driving is more convenient than public transportation.
“When you live and work in the city, you’re so used to just getting beat up with all the fees, and the tolls, and the tickets and the summonses and the violations,” he said. “It’s just another one.”
Winnie Hu is a Times reporter covering the people and neighborhoods of New York City.
Stefanos Chen is a Times reporter covering New York City’s transit system.
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