Cops were called to the second-floor apartment on E. 148th St. near Courtlandt Ave. in Mott Haven around 5:40 p.m. by a 32-year-old man who said someone was trying to remove the cooling unit, police said.

But when officers arrived, they couldn’t find the 911 caller, and began to walk down the stairs in an “extremely tight stairwell” to the first floor, Deputy Chief Rohan Griffith of the NYPD’s Force Investigation Division said at a news conference Sunday night.

As two female officers approached the first-floor landing, they spotted a man coming up the staircase from a side entrance with a kitchen knife in hand.

“One officer gave the male verbal commands, telling him to, ‘Wait! Wait! Wait!’ and also telling him to ‘Drop it! Drop it!’ while also putting her hand up to motion for him to stop,” Griffith said.

When the man continued to “swiftly approach” the officers, one fired her weapon, striking the man in the torso, he added.

Police believe the caller was confronting the air conditioner thief in the building’s side courtyard right before he ran into the stairwell and encountered the cops.

Griffith said police are still searching for the would-be thief, who remained “unidentified” late Sunday.

Waldo Mejia is accused of randomly killing Caleb Rijos as the boy walked to school Friday morning. At the time of the slaying, Mejia, 29, faced an ongoing criminal case for allegedly kicking a neighbor’s door and damaging their Ring doorbell in the suspect’s apartment building in Mott Haven.

The trouble in Mejia’s building on Alexander Ave. near E. 139th St. began when the 43-year-old neighbor was awoken around 4 a.m. by Mejia, who apparently didn’t have a key.

Mejia was pounding on the building’s front door and ringing the neighbor’s intercom, trying to get inside.

The next day, the neighbor encountered Mejia in the staircase and confronted him about the commotion.

“I said, ‘Listen, why you be [ringing] my door?’ ” the neighbor recalled. “You got no keys, ask for the super.”

That conversation apparently set Mejia off.

“Next day, he hit my door — boom!” the neighbor said. “Kicked it hard.”

Ring footage shows Mejia trying to remove his neighbor’s doorbell camera’s lens before getting frustrated about 7 p.m. on Nov. 27. He then angrily kicked the door before retreating upstairs. About 30 minutes later, he returned with a long kitchen knife and stabbed the camera multiple times, cracking it, the creepy footage shows.

Mejia was arrested for harassment and criminal mischief that day, but the charges are not bail eligible so he was cut loose after his arraignment in Bronx Criminal Court.

His quick release and return to the building unsettled his neighbor.

“I got nervous,'” the neighbor said. “I saw him. I said, ‘Oh, my God, this guy’s here.’ ”

Since then, the neighbor has made sure Mejia is not around before leaving home.

“Every time I go by the stairs — my wife is the same way — we had to check my camera to see if the guy left,” the neighbor told The News. “I don’t want nothing to happen to me!”

Neighbors had good reason to be scared of Mejia.

On Jan. 5, Mejia allegedly jumped a 38-year-old stranger heading down the stairs at the Third Ave.-E. 138th St. subway station a block from Mejia’s home, then knifed him in the left arm. The blade perforated the limb, cut an artery and entered the man’s chest cavity, according to a criminal complaint.

The victim needed lifesaving surgery, but he survived. The attacker got away.

Then about 9:30 a.m. on Friday, Mejia ambushed Caleb near E. 138th St. and Lincoln Ave., half a block from the subway attack and close to where the high schooler lived, according to cops

Mejia jammed a serrated kitchen knife twice into the boy’s chest, cutting through his heart and lung, according to cops. The teen ran off and called his father, begging his dad for help with his final breaths.

It took a day for cops to nab Mejia for the slaying. NYPD detectives conducted a 1,000-foot radius search of the area and checked pervious crimes involving knives “and got an interesting result,” NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at a Saturday news conference about the arrest in Caleb’s killing. “Just 750 feet away there was an earlier crime in which an individual stabbed a Ring camera.”

“When detectives showed the arresting officer in that case the images taken from Friday’s stabbing, she immediately recognized the perp as Mr. Mejia,” Tisch added.

“Officers now knew who they were looking for and where he lived. They obtained footage from the same Ring camera he had stabbed weeks prior and saw him leaving his residence a few minutes before Friday’s stabbing.”

Cops grabbed Mejia returning to his building in the first minutes of Saturday. He was wearing the same sneakers and pants he wore during the fatal stabbing about 15 hours earlier, cops said.

“And he was in possession of a bloody knife,” Tisch said.

Mejia has a long criminal history, including four unsealed arrests, Tisch said. Two of those arrests involved knives while a third involved a gun.

Mejia was ordered held without bail during his arraignment on murder charges in Bronx Criminal Court on Saturday. “My name is Waldo Mejia, so get ready to f—–g suffer along with me!” the suspect shouted during his chaotic court appearance.

The neighbor with the damaged Ring doorbell said he was shocked when police knocked on his door Saturday to tell him about Caleb’s killing.

“I feel bad for the mother,” he said. “It’s very bad.”

He mused Mejia might have stabbed him, too, if given the chance.

“You open the door, the guy comes with a knife, and then what? I’ll be dead,” the neighbor said.

“I feel good that the guy is in jail because, you know, I don’t want nothing to happen to nobody. … I feel good. Like, I feel a little safe now. I feel better, Man.”

“My name is Waldo Mejia, so get ready to f–king suffer along with me!” the 29-year-old suspect shouted during his chaotic arraignment in Bronx Criminal Court.

Mejia faces murder, manslaughter and other charges for the Friday morning killing of 14-year-old Caleb Rijos near E. 138th St. and Lincoln Ave. as the victim was walking to school, just down the block where the suspect lives. Judge Margaret Martin ordered a mental health exam after his extended outburst in court.

At first, Mejia stood quietly before the judge, wearing the same black hoodie and gray pants as when police led him out of the 40th Precinct stationhouse a day earlier.

But his demeanor changed when a court officer started to touch his handcuffs. He turned his head to her and said, “Let me go. Let me go. I’mma catch you when I can.”

The court officer stayed quiet and Mejia ranted, yelling out profane remarks as court officers led him out of the room to cool down.

“I’m with Satan!” he yelled. “Pieces of s–t a– people! … Get ready to f–king suffer!”

Mejia’s defense lawyer, Paul Horowitz, sat down in the courtroom’s front row and exhaled, “Oh, boy.”

After about ten minutes Mejia was called back to see the judge.

Mejia walked in quietly and stood pin straight, looking forward at Martin, as he was arraigned for both Caleb’s murder and the attempted murder of a 38-year-old man police say he stabbed on Jan. 5 just half a block from where Caleb was killed.

In that case, Mejia jumped a stranger walking down stairs at the Third Ave.-E. 138th St. subway station, plunging a large knife into his left arm with such force that the blade perforated the limb, cut an artery and entered the victim’s chest cavity, according to a criminal complaint.

The victim needed life-saving surgery.

At the defense attorney’s request, the judge approved a mental health exam for Mejia, holding him without bail until his next court date Friday.

As the hearing ended, Mejia had another outburst, telling court officers as he was escorted out, “I’mma snap your neck!”

His screams and curses could he heard through the door as he was led out of the courtroom and he his rants included remarks about the “White House” and “al Qaeda,” a court officer said after the drama ended.

“He’s nuts,” the officer told reporters.

Mejia cursed out reporters Saturday as he was led from the Bronx NYPD stationhouse, screaming, “I don’t know what the f–k y’all doing here on this planet!…. Y’all f–k around and I’mma beat your a– like a f—ing adult when I catch y’all!”

Mejia plunged a serrated kitchen knife twice into the Caleb’s chest, cutting through his heart and lung, police said. The teen, who was only a block from home when stabbed, stayed alive long enough to call his father, begging for help in his final moments.

Mejia’s arrest came as Gov. Hochul announced she’d introduce legislation in the state budget making it easier to involuntarily commit those suffering from mental illness to hospitals. The governor cited an uptick in violent crimes on the NYC subway system — including an incident where a homeless woman was fatally set on fire aboard a Brooklyn F train in Coney Island.

On Saturday, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch described Mejia as “a violent recidivist with documented mental health interactions with the NYPD.”

“The systems we have in place to deal with repeat offenders and people with severe mental health issues continue to fail us,” she added.

Less than two months before Caleb’s killing, Mejia went ballistic in his own apartment building on Alexander Ave., less than 750 feet away from where he ambushed the teen, police said. In that Nov. 27 incident, he pounded on a neighbor’s door and used a knife to repeatedly stab the 43-year-old victim’s Ring doorbell camera, busting it, cops said.

He was arrested on criminal mischief and harassment charges, which are not eligible for bail. His release left his targeted neighbor fearing for his life, the neighbor told The Daily News.

The fire broke out on the top floor of the Mayfair Apartments on Wallace Ave. near Arnow Ave. at about 1:40 a.m. and quickly spread to the cockloft — the crawlspace between the ceilings of the top floor apartments and the roof, officials said.

“It was a heavy fire that destroyed apartments on the top floor and burned through the roof,” FDNY Chief of Department John Esposito said during a Friday morning press conference at the scene with Fire Commissioner Robert Tucker and Mayor Adams. “The fire had too much headway. It was an extremely dangerous fire for our firefighters.”

More than 250 firefighters, emergency medical technicians and paramedics responded to the fire, FDNY officials said. Images shared by the FDNY showed bright pockets of orange flames breaking through the roof of the 200-foot-long building.

Firefighters fought the blaze through the night and into the morning. Five firefighters and a resident suffered minor injuries and were taken to area hospitals. One resident was treated at the scene, the FDNY said.

Fire marshals were trying to determine what sparked the blaze. The damage to the building was so severe, marshals still hadn’t been able to get into the building to find the fire’s point of origin by Friday afternoon, FDNY sources said.

“This was very difficult for firefighters to fight,” Tucker said. “Thank God there were no serious injuries. That’s a miracle. This was a very, very large fire, wind-driven.”

Jarixa Guzman, 31, her husband and four children fled after the lights suddenly went out in their apartment and they heard the fire crackling before flames burst their way into the unit.

“I heard the crackling in between the walls,” said Guzman. “I told [my husband], ‘go wake up the kids. There’s a fire. There’s a fire.’ He’s like, ‘Where, I don’t see it?’ And then it started coming down from the light fixtures.”

Guzman’s terrified children, ages 6, 8, 10 and 12, scrambled to gather their cats and game systems before fleeing — but weren’t able to save all their pets.

“We grabbed two of the kittens. The mother [cat] just went back in [to the apartment], and then we ended up losing one of [the kittens],” Guzman said. “My kids are hysterical.”

The ASPCA said while “many pets remain missing” both the ASPCA and the Animal Care Centers of NYC were “on standby to conduct animal search and rescue and provide additional support as needed” and providing pet food and supplies as well as emergency boarding and veterinary care.

By Friday afternoon nearly 100 households from the Mayfair Apartments, which included nearly 200 adults and 57 children, had come to nearby P.S. 76 seeking help.

More than 50 of the households applied for emergency shelter, Red Cross officials said.

“We’ll provide emergency assistance, including lodging, connection to the resources that the families need as they plan their next steps in recovering from this disaster,” American Red Cross of Greater New York CEO Doreen Thomann-Howe said Friday.

Julie Scott-Fernandez, 43, her daughter and granddaughter were among the families seeking shelter at P.S. 76 and hoping they could get back into their building to gather their possessions.

“So the entire sixth floor in the building is done. The fifth floor is also done. The fourth floor is filled with smoke and water, so we’re flooded, and they’re not letting us back in the building at all,” said Scott-Fernandez.

“I’m really praying, hoping and praying that we’ll be able to salvage some things, because I do have all my valuables, and I didn’t even grab my purse. They said the marshal has to deem it safe for us before we can get back in. So we’re just waiting,” Scott-Fernandez added.

“All my stuff is a total loss,” said resident Ty Holmes, 36, who works at Madison Square Garden. “I just moved into this apartment, maybe three or four months ago … All I have is what I have on my back. I just bought a new 65-inch TV, which was an accomplishment. Like, this is my first official apartment of my own. All my identification, everything is in there.”

Residents told reporters lack of heat was a chronic problem in the building and some tenants have resorted to using their ovens and space heaters to keep warm, which could have sparked the fire.

Adams said Friday morning that city officials were unaware about any heat complaints in the building.

“We are going to have DOB and other city agencies look into if there’s a chronic condition,” he said. “We’re going to look at if there are 311 calls that were made … and we’re going to find out what the cause of this fire is.”

The city Department of Buildings has a stop work order on the building following a 2019 violation in which debris was found falling from the facade, according to city records.

The DOB has received 61 complaints about the building, mostly about the condition of the elevator, which residents said continually breaks down.

The most recent complaints were filed last February, city records show.

With Cayla Bamberger

June Cuadrado, 21, and Adam Soto, 20, were both nabbed and charged with murder and robbery in the Dec. 15 slaying of 26-year-old Tyreek Moore, cops said.

Merkel Washington, 24, was on his way to meet up with Moore at a bus stop on Seward Ave. near Puglsey Ave. in Castle Hill around 5:55 p.m. when he was approached by Cuadrado, Soto, a third man and a woman, police said.

Soto put a gun to the back of Washington’s head and demanded, “Give me everything you’ve got,” according to a criminal complaint, and the man turned over his cell phone and wallet.

Moore — about a half block away — spotted his friend in danger and rushed to intervene, police said. Soto turned the gun on Moore and asked him, “Do you want to die tonight?” according to prosecutors.

When Washington refused to give the robbers the password to his phone, he was pistol-whipped. The two men turned to walk away when Washington heard the click of the gun, indicating a jam.

“This s— doesn’t work,” Soto muttered before firing another shot, this time striking Moore in the back with a bullet, prosecutors said.

As Moore fell to the pavement suffering from a fatal gunshot wound, the gunman and his sidekicks took off, with Washington’s phone and wallet in tow, cops said. Medics rushed both victims to Jacobi Medical Center, where Moore died.

“He was a good person,” Washington told The News last month. “He was a genuine person. Ty wasn’t a person who showed people fake love. It just feels unreal.”

Following arraignments at Bronx Criminal Court, both Soto and Cuadrado were held without bail, records show. They are being held at the same jail on Rikers Island as they await their next court appearances.

Police are still searching for the two other people involved in the senseless killing.

Florentino Cano-Garcia, 32, was stabbed in the neck during a fight inside the Selwyn Ave. apartment near East Mount Eden Ave. — just a block away from Claremont Park — about 1:30 a.m., cops said.

Medics rushed him to BronxCare Health System but he could not be saved.

Cops took the cousin, Dionicio Cano-Vicario, 18, into custody without incident. The knife used in the attack was recovered at the scene, cops said.

The younger Cano-Vicario was charged with murder, manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon.

The cousins lived in the apartment together, police said.

“Where the hell is the train? Where the f— is the train?” the upset 47-year-old victim said out loud as he waited at the Pelham Parkway subway station at 6:10 a.m. on Thursday.

The complaint was overheard by the 52-year-old Jamar Banks, who was standing nearby on the platform, police sources said.

“You talking to me?” Banks asked before picking a fight and allegedly stabbing the cleaner in the back and armpit, the sources said.

After Banks ran off, medics took the worker to Jacobi Medical Center with a minor wound.

Less than 24 hours earlier, Banks allegedly knifed a 31-year-old man aboard an uptown No. 2 train at the 14th St. station in the West Village.

The victim suffered a punctured lung during the 9:40 a.m. attack on New Year’s Day, court papers reveal.

Banks walked up to the victim and started the argument, then pulled a large knife and stabbed the man in the back according to cops.

Banks was busted two days after police identified him as a suspect in the two stabbings and asked the public’s help tracking him down. He has more than 80 prior arrests on his record, a law enforcement source said.

Police charged him with assault and weapons possession for the pair of stabbings in transit.

A Manhattan Criminal Court judge ordered Banks held on $300,000 bail during a brief arraignment proceeding on Sunday.  Bronx prosecutors handling the attack on the MTA cleaner are expected to bring their evidence to a grand jury before he’s indicted, officials said.

The NYPD saw a 5% drop in major crime in the subway system last year compared to 2023. But assaults in transit are up and the city has been rocked by a string of high-profile crimes in the subway recently, most notably the homeless woman fatally burned alive on a Coney Island train last month.

As a result, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch announced she has assigned 200 additional cops to patrol the subways.

Friday’s ruling removes what is likely the final obstacle to congestion tolling’s planned Sunday start, though New Jersey’s lawyer, Randy Mastro, said after the ruling he would seek an emergency appeal Friday night or Saturday morning at the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia.

“We will continue on behalf of the state of New Jersey to do everything we can to stop congestion pricing from going forward before this remand,” he said.

That possibility notwithstanding, beginning after midnight Jan. 5, drivers will be automatically tolled when the drive on Manhattan surface streets at 60th Street or below, paying a base toll of $9 to enter the congestion zone.

“We’ve been studying this issue for five years, but it only takes about five minutes if you’re in midtown Manhattan, to see that New York has a real traffic problem,” said MTA chariman Janno Lieber in praising the ruling.

Judge Leo Gordon made the ruling from the bench late Friday night, after attorneys for the Garden State sought to clarify his Monday ruling in New Jersey’s long-running suit seeking to stop the toll. The Murphy administration’s suit — the most serious challenge to New York’s plan to toll drivers entering Midtown and lower Manhattan — argues that changing traffic patterns from trucks and other vehicles seeking to avoid the toll will unfairly impact the air quality in New Jersey.

In his Monday ruling, Gordon had issued a “remand in part” of the Federal Highway Administration’s approval of congestion tolling. The judge ordered the feds to account for why New York’s congestion pricing plan detailed specific pollution mitigations for the Bronx, but failed to detail such plans for several New Jersey towns — even though both regions are expected to see an increase in motor vehicle traffic.

During Friday’s hearing in Newark, MTA attorney Elizabeth Knauer said there was $9.8 million in mitigation funds earmarked for New Jersey communities since the June evaluation by the highway administration that would be rolled out over five years.

“There was always a commitment to provide mitigation to communities in New Jersey that warranted it,” she said.

But Mastro, the well-known litigator representing New Jersey, said residents of the Garden State are going to suffer and told the judge: “You’re the last line of defense and you already recognized that they got it wrong.”

The judge’s ruling earlier this week sparked confusion as both sides declared victory.

Gov. Hochul and Lieber both said the tolling plan would continue, as the ruling included no language requiring them to stop while the feds answered Gordon’s concerns.

But the Garden State said the ruling should stop the toll in its tracks. Attorneys for New Jersey argued that even a partial remand meant the program was no longer authorized by federal regulators, and that a lack of clarity regarding pollution mitigation should in and of itself be enough to order a temporary pause on the program.

“The irreparable harm that New Jersey will suffer once the MTA flips the switch on congestion pricing is manifest,” the Garden State’s lawyers wrote earlier this week in seeking an injunction against a Sunday start. “Beginning on Day One, New Jersey will experience vehicle traffic increases and poorer air quality.”

After four hours of closed-door deliberation Friday evening, Gordon said that his ruling was never intended to block the tolling program, and that he was not tossing the federally approved environmental studies backing congestion pricing.

“The court will be be clear that the court did not vacate the [environmental assessment] or the [finding of no significant environmental impact,]” Gordon said.

Mastro, representing New Jersey, tried one last time to stop the toll after Gordon denied the injunction, asking for a temporary pause in order to appeal to the higher Third Circuit court.

“I respectfully request you give us five days to allow the third circuit to take up the issue,” Mastro said.

Gordon denied the request.

Outside the Newark courthouse, Mastro reiterated his intent to appeal to the Third Circuit in Philadelphia.

“If we can get there tonight, we will file our emergency appeal papers tonight — otherwise we’ll file them first thing tomorrow morning,” he said.

Lieber welcomed news of the court victory Friday at a press conference in the transit agency’s downtown headquarters.

“Earlier this week, Judge Gordon in New Jersey rejected that state’s claim that the environmental assessment — the 4000 page document reflecting five years of work that had been approved by the federal government — was deficient in some way,” he said. “Today, the judge confirmed that ruling and denied New Jersey’s effort to get an injunction to stop congestion pricing from starting tomorrow night.”

New York’s congestion tolling plan, mandated by law in 2019, is meant to reduce traffic in Midtown and lower Manhattan while raising funds for the MTA’s capital budget.

Revenue from the toll is intended to back $15 billion in bonds issued by the MTA, which will in turn fund a bevy of construction and repair projects around the city’s transit network.

The toll had been set to go into effect last summer, before Gov. Hochul paused the plan three weeks before it was to start, ultimately waiting until November to re-start it at a lower initial cost to drivers.

The transit worker’s alleged stabber, whom police identified as 52-year-old Jamar Banks, also attacked a 31-year-old man aboard a northbound No. 2 train at the 14th St. subway station in the West Village shortly after 6 p.m. on New Year’s Day, cops said.

The Downtown victim told police that Banks walked up to him and started an argument aboard the train before drawing a knife and stabbing him in the back.

Medics rushed the victim to Bellevue Hospital in stable condition. The stabber fled the subway station on foot, said police.

Banks’ alleged stabbing spree continued the following day when he attacked a 47-year-old off-duty station cleaner at the Pelham Parkway subway station around 6 a.m., according to police.

As in the earlier incident, Banks picked a fight with the transit worker before stabbing him in the back and armpit, cops said.

EMS transported the MTA employee to Jacobi Medical Center in stable condition, police said.

Banks fled the Bronx station on foot.

Police released surveillance images of the suspect in hopes the public will assist in tracking him down. He is described as 5-feet-11 and weighing 120 pounds, and was seen carrying a red suitcase.

Anyone with information on the suspect is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 800-577-TIPS. All calls are confidential.

The path to this point has been long and confusing  — so drivers have many questions about the MTA’s plan to reduce congestion and raise funds for mass transit improvements.

Here’s what you need to know:.

When exactly does it start?

Congesting tolling is scheduled to start just after midnight the morning of Sunday, January 5th.

What is the “Congestion Relief Zone?”

Any motorist entering Manhattan at 60th Street or below on surface streets will be tolled.

How much will the toll be?

It depends on what you’re driving, as well as the time of day.

Those behind the wheel of ordinary passenger vehicles — cars, SUVs and pickup trucks — will be charged $9 for entering the zone between the hours of 5 a.m. and 9 p.m. on weekdays, or 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. on weekends.

Larger vehicles — trucks and non-commuter buses — will be charged more: $14.40 for buses and smaller box-trucks, $21.60 for big rigs.

Motorcycles will be charged the least, with a base toll of $4.50.

Will they go up?

Yes, the tolls are expected to increase over time. By law, the toll is required to raise $15 billion towards the MTA’s capital budget — a figure that the MTA plans to reach by selling bonds backed by tolling revenue.

In order to back those bonds, the base toll will go up to $12 in 2028, and will rise to $15 in 2031

Are there ever reduced tolls?

Overnight tolls will be significantly lower — $2.25 for those in regular passenger vehicles, less than the cost of a subway or bus ride.

How will I be billed?

The best rate — Gov. Hochul’s advertised rate of $9 once a day for ordinary cars — is only for drivers with an EZPass transponder. Drivers in the same type of vehicle, but without an EZPass, will be charged $13.50 — the base toll-by-mail rate.

MTA officials say the EZPass transponders issued by any state will work — except in the case of discounted rates, which will require a New York-issued EZPass.

And drivers should make sure their EZPass account is up to date with their current plate number before tolling starts on January 5. It’s important that a driver’s license plate match the EZPass attached to the car, MTA officials say.

Due to the traffic density on the roads leading into the congestion zone, the system will first look at a vehicle’s license plate, and then try to match it to an EZPass transponder signal. If a license plate is not tied to an EZPass, the driver will be charged the toll-by-mail rate, regardless of whether or not there’s a transponder in the car.

What if I leave the congestion zone and then go back, will I be charged twice?

Ordinary motorists — those who drive the everyday cars, SUVs or pickup trucks subject to the $9 toll — can only be charged once a day. There’s a big exception for larger vehicles, though. Trucks and buses will be charged each time they enter the zone.

For drivers subject to the once-a-day toll, the system will reset at midnight. That means drivers who enter the zone in the early morning hours — before 5 a.m. on a weekday — will be charged only the 75% discounted overnight rate that day.

Are there any roads that are exempt from tolling?

The West Side Highway, the FDR Drive, and the Battery Park Underpass — the tunnel under the Battery that links FDR Drive to the West Side Highway — are all deemed to be outside the congestion pricing zone. A driver who rounds the horn of Manhattan on the highways from the Upper West to the Upper East sides, for example, will not be charged a congestion toll.

Is the West Side Highway south of 57th Street considered a highway or a surface street?

An exempt highway.

What about coming off the bridges and the tunnels?

That depends on the bridge or tunnel.

If you enter Manhattan at the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel and drive directly up to the Upper East or Upper West sides north of 60th St. without leaving the highways, you will not be charged.

Likewise, a driver who goes between the Brooklyn Bridge and the FDR drive using the on-ramps between the two will stay off of surface streets and therefore not be charged. Similarly, the connection between the West Side Highway and the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel is not considered part of the congestion zone.

But not all the bridges and tunnels connect directly to the highways — so you’re going to pay.

Drivers coming down the West Side Highway to get to the Holland or Lincoln Tunnels — or headed down the FDR with an eye towards the Williamsburg, Manhattan, or Queensboro bridges or the Queens-Midtown Tunnel — will have to first jump on surface streets — and will therefore be charged.

Likewise, drivers coming into Manhattan off those bridges and tunnels into city streets will pay.

So if I take the Holland or Lincoln Tunnels and pay that toll coming in from New Jersey, I get tolled again when entering Manhattan?

Yes. But during daytime hours — from 5 a.m. and 9 p.m. on weekdays, or 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. on weekends — the MTA will discount part of the tunnel toll with what they’re calling a “crossing credit.”

For the Holland and Lincoln tunnels, the crossing credit will start at $3 for ordinary drivers and climb to $5 by the time the full toll phases in in 2031. For the Brooklyn-Battery and Queens-Midtown tunnels, the credit will start at $1.50, and rise to $2.50.

What about gridlock days?

The congestion pricing plan as approved allows the MTA discretion to tack a 25% surcharge onto the toll on days declared by the city’s Transportation Department to be “gridlock alert days.”

Those days, said to be the heaviest traffic days of the year, typically come with the winter holidays and the United Nations’ General Assembly. The city DOT declared 20 such days this year.

If invoked, that would raise the base toll to $11.25 on those days.

Gov. Hochul last month indicated that she would put the kibosh on gridlock-day hikes.

Will it cost more to take a taxi or an Uber into midtown?

Taxis, Ubers, Lyfts and other for-hire vehicles with Taxi and Limousine Commission plates will be assessed a surcharge on every trip into the zone and that charge will be added to a passenger’s fare.

Those surcharges will start at 75 cents for taxis and $1.50 for rideshare cars like Uber and Lyft. In 2028, that’ll increase to $1 for taxis and $2 for Ubers and Lyfts. In 2031, it will go up to $1.50 for taxis and $2.50 for Ubers and Lyfts.

So, what’s the best way to avoid the congestion tolls if I’m going to New Jersey?

No one will be tolled for leaving the congestion zone, only for entering.

If you drive from north of the congestion zone and cross the Hudson on the George Washington Bridge, you can avoid the toll — similarly, New Jersey drivers entering Manhattan via the G.W. but staying north of 60th will not be tolled.

What about getting to orfrom the other boroughs?

The Harlem River crossings — including the Triborough/RFK Bridge and the various bridges connecting Manhattan to the Bronx, such as the Macombs Dam Bridge near Yankee Stadium — are outside the congestion zone.

Most of the East River crossings  — specifically the Manhattan, Williamsburg and Queensboro bridges, as well as the Queens-Midtown tunnel — connect on the Manhattan side only to surface streets within the zone, so drivers will be tolled.

But since the Brooklyn Battery tunnel and the Brooklyn Bridge are accessible directly from the FDR Drive or the West Side Highway, motorists using the crossings from those roads won’t be charged.

The Brooklyn Bridge has several entrances that are on city streets, however, and any driver using those will be tolled.

Are there discounts available?

There are limited discounts available.

Drivers with a federal adjusted gross income of less than $50,000 last year can to get a 50% discount off the daytime rate for any trips made after the first 10 in each calendar month.

New Yorkers who live in Manhattan at 60th Street or below — in other words, within the zone — can apply for a tax credit matching the amount spent in tolls, but only if they make $60,000 or less per year.

Full exemptions are also available for vehicles that are used to transport people who have disabilities or health conditions that prevent them from using transit — whether those are driven by those people themselves, or by caregivers.

Applications for those exemptions or discounts can be found on the MTA’s website.

Those seeking the discounts will need to have an EZPass issued by New York state in their vehicle — which can be obtained even by drivers with out-of-state plates.

Could congestion pricing stop once it starts?

Some congestion pricing opponents have said they will continue to push for the program to end or to be significantly changed, and there are still several legal challenges making their way through the federal court system.

But a federal judge in Manhattan last month ruled in New York’s favor to continue the plan, and barring any last minute injunction in other jurisdictions, the tolling is set to start Sunday morning.