It's Wednesday, you deserve a treat, like an episode of the Hell Gate Podcast! Listen here, or wherever you get your podcasts.
When congestion pricing finally went into effect in January, advocates for it lauded the money it would raise for the MTA, how it would lessen traffic and noise in Lower Manhattan, and hopefully, how it would lead to some salutary impact on air quality in the congestion pricing zone below 59th Street.
Almost a year later, all three of those things have happened, and then some. A new study by researchers at Cornell University found that not only has the air gotten cleaner—much cleaner—in the congestion pricing zone, but the tolls have also led to significantly cleaner air across the entire city. Specifically, congestion pricing has helped cut down the number of heavy-duty trucks coming into the city that spew heavy particulate matter, which causes asthma and other harmful health impacts.