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A New Jersey mayor is proposing the idea of a reverse congestion pricing toll after New York City implemented its controversial levy last week.

Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop, who is also running for governor of the Garden State, floated the idea, according to Fox 5 New York.

“New Jersey has the same opportunity to push the buttons that New York is pushing against us,” Fulop told the outlet. “We could do that to them, but the goal is to get to a table to have a reasonable solution.”

The mayor said he believes reverse congestion pricing is the appropriate response to New York City’s new toll, which imposes fees on vehicles that enter busy parts of Manhattan as a way to encourage people to take the subway.

“There’s plenty of crossings between Staten Island, New York, Bergen County, Hudson County into New Jersey,” Fulop said. “There’s plenty of opportunities to have the same sort of impact fee that New York is putting on New Jersey.”

Fulop said he believes the money made from reverse congestion pricing should fund New Jersey’s mass transit system, which has suffered from delays and cancellations.

“My view is that New Jersey Transit is a terrible product, and it should be invested in more, and until you get a reliable transportation system in New Jersey, you can’t responsibly think that people are going to take the trains,” Fulop said. “But this was an opportunity to get hundreds of millions of dollars into New Jersey Transit, and I think the governor just took a very easy political approach.”

There was initially the possibility for New Jersey to receive hundreds of millions of dollars from New York City’s new toll, but that fell through amid litigation.

The details of Fulop’s proposal are not yet finalized, but he said gantries or toll sites could be stationed outside tunnels and bridges in New Jersey.

He said that, similar to congestion pricing, there may be exemptions or crossing credits.

It is unclear if New Jersey residents would be required to pay the toll to re-enter their home state like some New Yorkers do for congestion pricing.

As the second workweek of congestion pricing begins, supporters of the new tolling program point to speedier commute times as proof the program is working as intended.

Commute times at two tunnels taking New Jersey drivers into New York City fell in congestion pricing’s first week, but traffic in the city remained largely static, according to a traffic tracker run by two college students.

With few exceptions, crossings through the Holland and Lincoln tunnels were faster in the first week of congestion pricing, which imposed $9 in additional tolls on car drivers entering Manhattan’s central business district, than before its implementation. Sometimes, crossings through the two tunnels were twice as fast.

“We’re having consistent reports that a.m. peak travel into the CBD is much faster. I think you’ve all heard it,” Metropolitan Transportation Authority CEO Janno Lieber said at a press conference Friday.

Drivers of passenger vehicles who use the two tunnels to enter the congestion pricing zone — that’s below 60th Street — during peak hours can receive a $3 toll credit.

Supporters of congestion pricing have said the policy is meant to reduce gridlock and pollution in Manhattan.

But the tracker, developed by Brown University senior Benjamin Moshes and Northeastern University freshman Joshua Moshes (who are brothers), showed virtually no change in traffic inside the tolling zone.

It isn’t immediately clear how congestion pricing affected traffic at other crossings into New York City.

Some opponents of the policy have warned it will push motorists to less-tolled crossings not subject to congestion pricing, like the George Washington Bridge.

Though the tracker does not measure commute times over the George Washington Bridge, it identified longer commutes on some other alternate routes.

“Traffic seems to have increased … on ‘spillover routes’ such as the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel and FDR Drive. These routes are near the congestion zone but are not being charged,” said Benjamin Moshes. “Traffic may have shifted to these from the above routes with decreased travel times.”

Those increases appeared smaller than the drop in traffic on affected crossings, Moshes said.

A spokesperson for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which manages the George Washington Bridge and other Hudson River crossings, said the agency would not have relevant traffic volume data until February.

Lawmakers in New Jersey have railed against congestion pricing, arguing New York was seeking to tax New Jersey residents to fill a $15 billion hole in the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s capital budget while shifting Big Apple pollution to the Garden State.

Gov. Phil Murphy has challenged congestion pricing in court with claims that federal authorities failed to properly weigh its impact on air quality in New Jersey. His spokespeople did not respond to a request for comment.

Though New York Gov. Kathy Hochul in June suspended an earlier proposal that would have immediately set congestion tolls to $15, tolls will reach that level in 2031 after rising to $12 per crossing in 2028.

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3-minute read

Amanda Wallace

NorthJersey.com

Here's how one Cranford-based business owner described the impact of Manhattan's new congestion pricing toll program so far: It's like "running buses in Wichita."

Joe Colangelo, founder and CEO of the private commuter bus company Boxcar, said the commute times for all six bus routes from Morris, Essex, Union and Bergen counties into midtown Manhattan have significantly improved this week since the congestion pricing toll went into effect.

Plus, the buses have fully booked up since the new tolling program to enter the city center went live early last Sunday morning.

Boxcar buses normally make five stops across Manhattan before going through the Lincoln Tunnel during the afternoon commute, which used to take about 30 minutes. In the first few days of the week, Colangelo said, it took 12 to 14 minutes.

Story continues below photo gallery.

"This is going to lead to us adding buses very quickly and expanding to other areas much more quickly than we would have otherwise," Colangelo said. "We did more rides yesterday than we did when the trains were down for three straight days" last summer.

On the other hand, congestion pricing hasn't improved the commute for Monique Baptiste, who drives to Harlem from Clinton Hill in Newark.

She said traffic at the George Washington Bridge used to snarl around 7:30 a.m., but this week it seemed to start piling up around 6 a.m. The George Washington Bridge was not subject to the congestion pricing toll, and some suspected that drivers might reroute — or "toll shop" — by using the bridge to cross the Hudson River.

That was among the concerns highlighted in New Jersey's lawsuit that twice failed in court to stop congestion pricing in the days leading up to its start.

After the experience driving over the bridge, Baptiste switched to the PATH train and said the Exchange Place stop in Jersey City was busier than usual. Cecilia Gomes, another Exchange Place regular, called it "insane" this week.

"The moral of the story is the NJ-NY commute just got a whole lot less reasonable in 2025," Baptiste said.

An array of experiences based on mode of commute

Dell Green, from the Bedminster area, decided to make the switch from car to train to avoid the congestion pricing toll.

"I don't regularly [commute] anymore but I used to drive in, so now I'm not. I'm not paying the $9 to go into Midtown," he said while waiting at NJ Transit's Morristown stop.

Marnie Briskin, who moved to the Morristown area a year and a half ago, said she hasn't noticed a big change during her train commute this week.

"People would say that you can never find parking at the Morristown train station, and I have never had trouble finding parking," she said.

Kevin Hanse uses a variety of NJ Transit buses — the 163/164, 171, 144, 320 — depending on where he's going in New York, and said he's noticed a substantial difference.

"More people are definitely riding the buses, and they're fast through the helix — especially once past the [Jersey City] car traffic," Hanse said. "Buses are beating the timetable, since that was calculated with the old traffic factored in."

First congestion toll of its kind in the US

Manhnattan's is the first tolling program of its kind to launch in the U.S. It's modeled after similar programs in London, Stockholm and Singapore.

The overarching goals are to reduce traffic, improve commutes for drivers, cut down on pollution and, in New York's case, fund capital projects for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, according to the 2019 state law that mandated its creation.

The $9 peak hour toll for passenger vehicles is charged to those entering Manhattan below 60th Street, including vehicles entering from New Jersey by way of the Lincoln and Holland tunnels.

Colangelo, of Boxcar, is cautiously optimistic about whether the new traffic patterns will hold. He notes that several factors could have affected commutes this week outside of the new toll, including the snowy conditions Monday and return-to-office mandates that coincided with the start of the new year.

Congestion pricing tracker launched by college students

Colangelo and commuters will be keeping a close eye on a congestion pricing tracker that was launched Sunday by two undergraduates, brothers Joshua and Benjamin Moshes, who attend Northeastern University and Brown University, respectively.

The brothers gathered traffic data before and after congestion pricing started, to compare traffic along 19 routes into the Manhattan toll zone, which is 60th Street and below unless drivers stay on perimeter highways, such as the FDR Drive and the West Side Highway.

Some routes, including those using the FDR Drive, jumped in commute times, while others plummeted, such as those using the Brooklyn Bridge, which had been a free crossing to enter Manhattan until congestion pricing. Traffic using the Lincoln and Holland tunnels also dropped.

The goal of the tracker, Joshua Moshes said, was to "make a website with unbiased data so people can make their own decisions" after congestion pricing kicked in.

"We want people to know that good data can lead to better decisions, and we want people to make better-informed decisions based on the tracker," said Benjamin Moshes. "We also know that people from other cities are also following along with this, and we want them to also get some insight."

Three days into New York’s congestion pricing program that charges $9 to enter Lower Manhattan and some drivers said they haven’t seen the $3 toll credit when they checked their E-ZPass statements.

The confusion is among New Jersey drivers who’ve contacted NJ Advance Media to say they haven’t received toll credit or seen it on their E-ZPass statement.

Some questioned if the toll credit is offered only to drivers with a New York issued E-ZPass.

We asked the MTA and spokesperson Aaron Donovan explained it takes time for the toll credits to show up on drivers E-ZPass statements.

“Any driver with any E-ZPass from any state receives a credit for using any of the four tunnels,” he said. “There is a lag time before the tunnel credits are posted to E-ZPass accounts.”

That lag time is explained in the congestion pricing Frequently Asked Questions page under the E-ZPass heading “How soon will the toll appear on my E-ZPass account?”

For E-ZPass customers outside New York, the congestion toll will post in 4 to 6 days, and crossing credits will post two to four days after that.

New York E-ZPass customers see the toll post in three days and crossing credits post one day after that. Tolls by Mail customers will see the charges when the invoice is sent.

The issue was also covered in the MTA’s our Congestion Relief Zone newsletter that went out to subscribers last week.

The Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority is running congestion pricing for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which the triborough authority is a part of.

It’s toll rate schedule says non-commercial passenger vehicles entering through the Holland and Lincoln tunnels and paying with E-ZPass will receive a $3 toll credit off the $9 congestion fee.

The MTA also has a congestion pricing toll rate calculator on its website. It asks for the type of vehicle, time you’re entering the city, which tunnel you’re using and which tunnel you plan to leave by. It only asks if you’re paying with an E-ZPass and doesn’t ask where it was issued.

For non-commercial passenger vehicles it show the $3 credit applied for the Holland and Lincoln tunnels for a total of $6.

The MTA has a discount program for two groups of people, low income and people who need to travel to a medical facility in the congestion zone. Those are different than the toll credit.

Drivers have to apply for those discounts and they require a New York issued E-ZPass. The toll credits do not have that requirement.

Congestion pricing, which was made a New York state law in 2019, was created to help reduce traffic, crashes and air pollution in Manhattan and raise $1 billion annually for subway, bus and commuter rail projects by charging a fee for drivers to enter Manhattan’s central business district south of 60th Street.

It is the first such program in the nation. London and Stockholm have similar programs. A projected 80,000 to 110,000 commuters are forecasted to switch from driving to transit to avoid the fee, MTA officials said.

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Larry Higgs may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on X @CommutingLarry

The Brief

Could New Jersey have the last laugh?

The gantries are up in Manhattan for the controversial congestion pricing toll, but Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop, who's also running for NJ governor, is floating the idea of a reverse congestion pricing toll.

What they're saying:

"New Jersey has the same opportunity to push the buttons that New York is pushing against us," Fulop said. "We could do that to them, but the goal is to get to a table to have a reasonable solution."

NJ mayor talks 'reverse congestion pricing' toll

Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop, who's also running for NJ governor, is floating the idea of a reverse congestion pricing toll. He joined Good Day New York to explain.

Fulop believes reverse congestion pricing is the answer to New York City's new toll.

"There's plenty of crossings between Staten Island, New York, Bergen County, Hudson County into New Jersey," Fulop said. "There's plenty of opportunities to have the same sort of impact fee that New York is putting on New Jersey."

Big picture view:

The idea is the money will go to fund New Jersey’s mass transit system, plagued by delays and cancelations.

Featured

The landmark initiative, which began on Sunday, is designed to reduce traffic congestion, improve air quality and raise funds for much-needed public transit upgrades.

"My view is that New Jersey Transit is a terrible product, and it should be invested in more, and until you get a reliable transportation system in New Jersey, you can't responsibly think that people are going to take the trains," Fulop said. "But this was an opportunity to get hundreds of millions of dollars into New Jersey Transit, and I think the governor just took a very easy political approach."

There was an option for New Jersey to get hundreds of millions from New York's new toll, but that opportunity was lost in the midst of litigation.

What we don't know:

The details have yet to be flushed out, but Fulop says gantries or toll sites could be stationed outside of tunnels and bridges in New Jersey. Like congestion pricing, there may be exemptions or crossing credits.

Featured

The crackdown could include a $50 fine for parked cars with obstructed plates, in addition to penalties for those caught driving through toll areas undetected.

It’s unclear if, like congestion pricing, New Jerseyans would pay the toll to reenter their home state like some New Yorkers do.

The other side:

reached out to the MTA and transit advocacy groups to gauge their interest, but they declined to comment. We also reached out to New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy to get his take, but haven't heard back.