New York City recently introduced a new congestion charge for people who insist on driving into certain especially crowded parts of the city, and so far, it’s been going great. There’s already less traffic, buses are moving faster and New Jersey is mad. The rich are also mad. What more could New Yorkers want? If you said fewer wrecks, wouldn’t you know it, you’re in luck. Because crashes and injuries are already down year-over-year, Streetsblog reports.
In the first 12 days of the congestion relief zone, which included 10 business days and one weekend, there were 90 wrecks and 37 wreck-related injuries. Over the same 12-day period last year, the area saw 199 crashes and 76 injuries. It’s still early, so there’s no telling whether this trend will continue, but a 55-percent drop in crashes and a 51-percent drop in injuries is nothing to sneeze at. We’ll take that kind of improvement every day of the week and twice on Sundays.
That said, 2024 was a bit of an outlier when it comes to crashes and injuries, so it’s possible the decline was less drastic than it initially appeared. In 2023, though, that same 12-day period had 173 reported crashes and 51 crash-related injuries. Compared to 2023, 2025 has seen a 48-percent drop in crashes and 27 percent fewer injuries. In fact, the congestion zone has seen fewer wrecks than in 2021 and 2022 when the pandemic was still raging and people were driving less.
MTA Policy and External Relations Chief John J. McCarthy didn’t sound surprised by the news, telling Streetsblog, “Seems logical that fewer vehicles, less gridlock and calmer traffic flow in the congestion relief zone would lead to a decrease in crashes and injuries.”
If you’re a New Yorker who would prefer not to be run over, this is, of course, great news. A lower chance of getting sent to the hospital? Sign us up! At the same time, though, won’t someone think of the poor body shop owners who won’t make as much money now that people aren’t crashing as much? They need those wrecks to put food on the table, and without them, what are they supposed to do? Buy-a the pasta and-a the gabbagool with cleaner air and quieter streets?
Hospital executives’ bonuses could also be on the line with fewer people getting injured, which so far absolutely no one is talking about. How are the hospitals supposed to increase profits every quarter without a steady supply of bodies coming through? Clearly, Governor Hochul didn’t think this idea through the whole way. Sure, New York is becoming a cleaner, quieter, less dangerous, more enjoyable city, and she stuck it to New Jersey, but at what cost, I ask. At what cost?