Vehicle Miles in the Congestion Zone (Data)

In short: Yes, driving inside the congestion zone has gone down. The MTA's vehicle-miles data shows average daily miles driven on the zone's streets about 7.4% lower in 2025 than in 2024, and about 5.0% lower on the excluded highways (FDR Drive, West Side Highway). In January–May 2026 the zone was another 2.8% below January–May 2025.

These are estimates from two traffic models, and the models disagree a lot. Read the "index explanation" below before quoting a number.

The numbers at a glance

Fetched October 12, 2026 from jbxx-kxff (January 2024 to May 2026 with both models; June 2026 had only one). Percent changes compare yearly averages of each model's daily miles, then average the two, which is how the MTA's one-year evaluation says it calculated its 7.1%.

The index, month by month

The zone line drops from January 2025, when tolling began. Every month of 2025 was below the same month of 2024. The excluded-highway line falls less. January and February 2026 are the lowest months in the data (78.7 and 83.2 for the zone). The data doesn't say why, so compare the same month a year apart rather than reading one month alone.

Index explanation

• What is counted: "the total vehicle miles traveled by all vehicles in the CBD," per month, as an average day (dataset description). All vehicles: private cars, trucks, buses, taxis, FHVs.
• Two areas: CRZ = the zone's streets and avenues at or below 60th Street; ER = the excluded roadways (FDR Drive, West Side Highway/Route 9A, Carey Tunnel links to West Street). See excluded roadways.
• Two models: StreetLight Data, Inc. makes two estimates, "aggregated GPS" (AGPS) and "connected vehicle data" (CVD). The MTA says all VMT figures are estimates "since no comprehensive source exists for location data from all vehicles."
• The index: each model's monthly value divided by its January 2024 value, times 100. The dataset's indexed_average_vmt averages the two. So 100 = January 2024, and 92 means 8% less driving per day than that month.

Taxis and FHVs: a different picture

The vehicle-miles dataset doesn't split out TLC vehicles. The MTA's evaluation did, using TLC trip location data analyzed by NYC DOT, for the zone and excluded roadways together, January–August 2025 vs 2024:

• Uber/Lyft: average daily miles −4.5% (623,543 → 595,491)
• Yellow taxis: +9.7% (228,185 → 250,322)
• Yellow taxis and Uber/Lyft together drove about 3,000 fewer miles a day in the area while cruising for passengers.

So TLC driving held roughly steady while total traffic fell. Uber/Lyft shrank and taxis grew; the reasons are covered in did congestion pricing reduce Uber trips?

Our own count from TLC trip records shows how many trips touch the zone each day now:

What the data can't tell you

• Why driving fell. Tolling, weather, construction and the economy all move these numbers.
• Who stopped driving. The data has no vehicle type.
• Exact miles. Both models are estimates. Their monthly changes differ by as much as 17 percentage points (March 2025: −3.1% in one, −20.5% in the other).
• Your shift. Less traffic overall doesn't mean more or fewer fares for you. For speed, see taxi and FHV speeds.

Source, method and data lag

Source: MTA, Vehicle Miles Traveled in the Central Business District: Beginning 2024, monthly, last updated September 25, 2026. We fetched all 60 rows on October 12, 2026 and computed yearly averages and percent changes ourselves. Our January–September 2025 result (−7.1%) matches the figure in the MTA's evaluation, which checks the method.

More: taxi and FHV entries into the zone, trip statistics, the zone's boundaries, and driving in empty. You can't use a personal car for app trips without TLC licensing (personal car for Uber?). Main guide: congestion pricing for TLC drivers. More in the tolls hub.