“It has been a very good week here in New York,” said Juliette Michaelson, MTA’s deputy chief of policy and external relations and a chief architect of the agency’s congestion pricing plan. “Just look out the window — there’s less traffic, quieter streets, and I think everybody’s seen it.”

While anecdotal evidence has abounded in the nine days since New York started charging drivers to drive on Manhattan’s surface streets at or below 60th St., Monday marks the first time the MTA has released data obtained by the tolling network.

According to the data collected last week, 499,016 vehicles entered the congestion tolling zone last Monday, the first weekday since tolling began. Those numbers steadily rose through the work week, with 561,604 vehicles entering the zone on Friday.

On average, that’s 539,217 vehicles a day — 7.5% fewer vehicles than the agency said would typically enter during a work week in January.

“These are significantly lower volumes than we would have expected without the program,” Michaelson said.

For those who do drive — or ride on the MTA’s buses — the data shows that the reduction in crossings has had a sizable impact on most commute times.

Comparing last Wednesday to an average Wednesday in January 2024, travel times improved across the board at all river crossings in the congestion zone.

A drive into Manhattan through the Lincoln Tunnel Wednesday was 39% faster than last January, according to the data. The Queens-Midtown Tunnel sped up 39%, and the Brooklyn Bridge sped up 28%. The smallest improvement was at the Manhattan Bridge — which still had 10% faster travel times than in January last year.

“For one day of data, to see such consistently high trip-time reductions is just very, very significant,” Michaelson said.

Similarly, east-west streets across the congestion zone saw speeds increase. With the exception of westbound traffic on 42nd St. and 23rd St., crosstown traffic times fell between 6% and 36%.

North-south travel times remained largely the same, however. Traffic on Third Ave. and Eighth Ave. sped up by more than 20%, but Second, Fifth and Ninth Aves. saw 1% longer travel times.

Michaelson and other MTA officials emphasized that the data is preliminary, and that the travel time data in particular is based on just one day of congestion pricing.

“This is still preliminary data,” Michaelson said.  “Travel patterns, we expect, will change.”

The MTA has not yet crunched the numbers on what the data means for tolling revenue — an income stream that is meant to back $15 billion in bonds to fund some of the agency’s biggest expansion and repair projects.

John McCarthy, MTA’s head of policy and external relations, told reporters to expect early revenue revenue data in “weeks, not months.”

The data comes as members of New York’s Republican delegation traveled to Mar-a-Lago over the weekend and reportedly discussed plans to kill the congestion toll with President Elect Donald Trump.

Trump has been a longtime opponent of the plan, and vowed early in his presidential run to undo it if elected — though it remains unclear what legal paths he would have to up-end a toll that’s administered by the state and has already been approved by federal regulators.

Asked about Trump’s threat prior to the MTA’s Monday data release, Mayor Adams said he wanted more information, and didn’t want to “throw more hysteria into this law of the land.”

“If the president decides an action such as that, I don’t control it,” he said.

Ricardo Louis, 44, was assigned to a track cleaning gang along the L line in Bushwick early Wednesday morning when he collapsed aboard a work train in the Morgan Ave. station at 3:10 a.m., Alina Ramirez, spokeswoman for TWU Local 100, told the Daily News.

Ramirez said Louis’ co-workers attempted to revive him while calling 911.

An FDNY spokesperson confirmed EMS transported Louis to Woodhull Hospital, while he was in an apparent state of respiratory or cardiac arrest.

The 44-year-old was pronounced dead at Woodhull.

“On behalf of our membership of 44,000 transit workers, I convey deep condolences to the family of Brother Louis and offer them all the resources of the Union as they go forward at this difficult time,” TWU Local 100 President Richard Davis said in a statement.

“Transit work on the subway tracks is hazardous because of constant train traffic and because medical attention is not immediately available,” Davis added.

“TWU Local 100 has always fought for better working conditions and we will determine whether any avoidable hazard contributed to this tragic death.”

In a statement, New York City Transit President Demetrius Crichlow shared his condolences.

“Our hearts go out to Ricardo’s family and coworkers,” he said. “This tragic medical episode underscores that the community of New York City Transit employees is indeed a family that today mourns the loss of one our own.”

From 6 a.m. to noon, officers stationed at 60th St. and Second Ave., and 60th St. and Broadway, handed out 113 tickets. Of those, 52 were for vehicles with obstructed or blocked license plates — a violation that’s been heavily targeted since the congestion pricing program went into effect Sunday.

In addition to the summonses, 10 vehicles were seized during the operation — eight of which had suspended registrations, and two that were impounded for other reasons. One individual was arrested at the scene, though authorities clarified the bust was for a warrant unrelated to congestion pricing.

The remaining violations included suspended licenses, unregistered vehicles and other offenses in line with the city’s expanded enforcement efforts under the congestion pricing program, which now charges drivers $9 to enter Manhattan’s busiest areas south of 60th St., including parts of the Financial District, Midtown and lower Manhattan.

Also handcuffed at the checkpoint near Columbus Circle was Staten Island artist, activist and very angry Scott LoBaido.

In a video posted to his X account, LoBaido parked his car just before the toll cameras and covered his front license plate with duct tape and his rear with a cutout of a middle finger, obscuring the tags.

LoBaido stood on the roof of his SUV holding a larger cutout of a middle finger. “F–k you! F–k you!,” the artist shouted. “F–k your congestion f–king prices!”

The video then cuts to a group of police officers attempting to coax him off his car and get him to move to the sidewalk. He was issued two summonses for disorderly conduct for creating a hazardous condition, and obstruction of vehicular traffic, police said.

The steel wheels of a subway car typically last months before needing to be refreshed and resurfaced through a process called “truing,” which ensures the wheels are round and properly tapered to glide smoothly over the rails.

But over the past two months, the wheels of the R160 cars maintained in New York City Transit’s Jamaica Yard have been wearing out in a matter of weeks, multiple sources with knowledge of subway operations have told The News.

Those cars operate on the E, F and R lines, and sources tell The News that the issue is taking dozens of cars out of service on any given day.

“NYC Transit engineers are reviewing why wheels on some R160 cars appear to have worn down sooner than anticipated, requiring nonurgent repairs,” William Amarosa, MTA’s acting head of subways, confirmed in a statement. “Preliminary review is underway to determine the root cause of the apparent additional wear on those wheels, beyond what is routinely anticipated by the planned maintenance schedule.”

The rapid wheel wear has resulted in a sizable train shortage on the system’s “B division” — the lettered lines — and has caused the MTA to shuffle around older rolling stock to keep up sufficient service across the board.

Large chunks of the territory served by the E, F and R trains — specifically the Queens Blvd. line in Queens and the Culver line in Brooklyn — operate with computerized signaling systems and require cars equipped to communicate with the modern signal network.

That means the MTA has had to pull more modern trains from elsewhere in the system to supplement the ailing R160s out of Jamaica.

Last weekend, G train riders were greeted with the familiar orange “conversational” seating of the old R68 train cars, roughly 60 of which were pulled off of the B, D, and N lines to serve on the G.

In turn, the MTA sent a dozen five-car R160 sets from the G train to Jamaica, where they were configured into six 10-car trains for service on the E, F and R lines. An unknown number of R179s from the A and C are also being sent to Jamaica.

The additional trains are meant to allow service to continue as normal on those three lines, despite the fact that trains are being taken out of service for wheel truing more frequently.

So far, MTA officials say, the subway swap has been a success — all B-division lines involved have been running with the same number of trains on the same schedule this week, according to MTA headquarters, and the only change straphangers see is a retro ride on the G.

But the cause of the rapidly wearing wheels remains a mystery — and it’s expected to affect the cars borrowed from other lines soon enough.

Multiple sources with knowledge of the problem told The News that the MTA’s engineers suspect a misaligned section of track somewhere in the system is the root of the problem, rather than an issue with the wheels themselves.

The R160 trains in question rotate between the E, F and R lines, the sources said, and are not strictly dedicated to one route or another.

The E, F and R trains run together along the Queens Blvd. line from the Jamaica Yard before splitting to go their separate ways under Sunnyside. The F train travels into Manhattan via the newly refurbished 63rd St. tunnel. The E joins the M in the 53rd St. tunnel, and the R joins the N and the W in the 60th St. tunnel.

Cars from other lines that share portions of track with the E, F and R are not showing similar wear issues, sources said — meaning that the problem is likely in a section of track used only by E, F or R trains. Such sections would include the 63rd St. tunnel, the Rutgers St. tunnel connecting Brooklyn and Manhattan, or the southern ends of the Culver and Fourth Ave. lines in Brooklyn.

Three sources told The News that MTA engineers are focusing on a handful of curved portions of track, but have yet to definitively find the problem. Multiple runs by the system’s track-geometry cars — specialized work trains that use a suite of cameras and measuring devices to check the spacing and alignment of the rails — have yet to turn up anything definitive.

An MTA spokesman said the agency is expecting to find and fix the problem soon. The borrowed R160s are expected back on the G line by the end of March, when they’ll be joined by two new R211 trains.

An R160 and a set of track defects were at the center of a bizarre derailment last January, when a slow-moving F train jumped the track on the Culver Line in southern Brooklyn.

As uncovered by The News, a crucial set of bolts in the suspension of the derailed train car was discovered to have been missing in that incident. A subsequent MTA investigation found that a misaligned rail along that section of track exacerbated the suspension problem and caused the derailment.

There is no indication that the wheel-wear issue is in any way related to last year’s derailment.

“New York has a problem — it’s called congestion,” Lieber said during an appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

“We have a great mass transit system that 90% of our commuters take,” Lieber said. “Using the proceeds from [congestion tolling] to invest in even better mass transit makes perfect sense — that’s why we’re doing it.”

The toll, which charges most passenger-car drivers $9 once a day to enter Midtown and lower Manhattan, is designed to back $15 billion in bonds earmarked for infrastructure improvements to the subway, bus and commuter rail system most people use to access the city’s business districts.

Proponents say the fees will also decrease motor vehicle traffic in the congestion zone, increasing bus speeds and emergency response times.

But critics have labeled the so-called “congestion tax” a money grab.

Westchester Republican Rep. Mike Lawler, appearing on “Morning Joe” to discuss the toll Monday, called the MTA “the worst-run authority in America,” adding he “fundamentally believe[s] [the MTA] needs an enema.”

“The fact is the MTA loses $700 million a year from people who refuse to pay to ride the subway,” Lawler added, incorrectly.

The MTA estimates its total loss from fare and toll evasion across all its divisions — including subways, buses, commuter rail and bridges and tunnels — to be roughly $690 million, according to a report published in 2023. Of that amount, subway fare evasion represents less than half, $285 million, in lost revenue.

“This is grievance politics, not substance politics,” Lieber said of Lawler’s criticisms Tuesday. “That guy is selling an outdated cartoon.”

As previously reported, the $15 billion in bonds contingent on congestion pricing are earmarked for a variety of big-ticket MTA upgrades and repairs, including hundreds of new R211 subway cars for the lettered lines, accessibility improvements at two dozen subway stations, and an extension of the long-awaited Second Ave. subway into East Harlem.

Lieber rejected the notion, put forward by host Willie Geist, that the subway system “doesn’t appear to be working for New Yorkers.”

“I grew up in a New York where the subways broke down every 5,000 miles, and now they break down every 200,000 miles,” Lieber said.

“We have a long way to go, and it needs to feel safer,” the transit boss continued. “This is a much better system than we’ve had in a long time, and I’m proud that we continue to make it better.”

As for any indications of what the toll was doing for congestion above ground, Lieber said it was too soon to tell.

“It’s too early to draw any, you know, long-term conclusions,” he said. “Yesterday was a light day — everybody was noticing the traffic was light. But it was also the day after the holiday season, and there was snow forecast, so, we’re not drawing any premature conclusions.”

Neither the MTA nor the city’s Department of Transportation — which shares in the administration of the new tolling program — could provide the Daily News with Monday’s traffic data.

An MTA spokesman said tolling data should be available for public release by the end of the week.

Subway ridership was up slightly compared with last week, with 3,435,564 riders going underground Monday, up 3.4% from the Monday prior, and up 4% from Jan. 8, 2024, last year’s comparable Monday.

“As my time as the Chief of the MTAPD comes to an end, I want to express my deep gratitude for the opportunity to lead this exceptional police department for the past two and a half years,” he wrote.

An MTA official speaking on background Tuesday confirmed Mueller’s departure, saying he had submitted his resignation effective Dec. 31.

Mueller was “a valued member of the MTA leadership team,” MTA spokesman Tim Minton said. “We asked him repeatedly to stay, but he declined, and we regret his departure.”

Mueller came to the MTA in 2022 after a 28-year career with the Yonkers Police Department where he spent more than two years as commissioner. Sources described him as well-respected by the MTA PD’s rank-and-file.

“I love every one of you and I will cheer for you and I am grateful for you,” Mueller told his officers in a video attached to his LinkedIn post.

“Thank you for giving me such a great two-and-a-half year ride,” he added. “I wish I could have stayed longer.”

The MTA official said Mueller’s second-in-command, Chief Thomas Taffe, is serving as the acting chief of the MTA Police.

Two sources told The News that retired NYPD chief Judith Harrison’s name was being floated as Mueller’s permanent successor, but an MTA spokesman said no one had yet been selected for the role and a search for a permanent chief is ongoing.

The MTA Police — distinct from the NYPD’s transit bureau, which patrols the subway system — is largely responsible for patrolling the Metro North and Long Island Rail Road systems, including Grand Central and Penn Station. The department has about 1,200 sworn officers.

This story has been updated.

The tolling program, the first of its kind in the United States, was introduced just after midnight on Sunday, and imposes a toll on drivers entering Manhattan’s busiest areas, including parts of the Financial District, Midtown, and Lower Manhattan. The additional $9 fee has long sparked controversy, but the city’s firefighters are now raising urgent concerns about its impact on emergency services.

According to Jim Brosi, president of the Uniformed Fire Officers Association, a number of New York’s bravest use their personal vehicles to drive to firehouses in need of additional personnel — but the newly imposed toll is making that financially unfeasible for many, forcing the department to rely on a fleet of just 15 vans to transport firefighters. These vehicles, typically reserved for other tasks — like picking up equipment or visiting injured members — will now be stretched thin in order to shuttle firefighters between stations, he argued.

“We move 200 firefighters a day,” Brosi said at a Sunday news conference. “The problem is we may only be dropping one firefighter off at each fire. This will slow down the time it takes to move between firehouses, meaning the firefighters waiting for relief will be on duty longer than they’re supposed to be.”

The bottleneck could result in an additional $1.8 million in estimated overtime pay, according to Brosi. The union head also stressed the possibility of delays in getting manpower to stations where they’re most needed.

The FDNY’s concerns are compounded by the need for firefighters to return to their original firehouses at the end of the day to secure equipment, change, and decontaminate — adding more strain to an already strained system.

The FDNY’s request for an exemption for those working inside the toll zone was denied. Brosi stressted they were not asking for a department-wide exemption, just a carve-out for the firefighters who are most affected.

“We didn’t ask for an entire fire department exemption,” said Brosi. “We didn’t ask for an entire civil service exemption. We asked very specifically for the people who are working in here, so they don’t retire, so that they don’t transfer out, so we don’t lose institutional knowledge.”

Brosi worries the increased costs and logistical headaches could lead to personnel issues down the line, as seasoned members of the department could transfer out or retire early as their toll bills explode.

“[Manhattan is] a very difficult place to work,” he said. “The buildings are unique. Every last one of them. The institutional knowledge required to understand the complexity of the buildings and how to properly fight fires [in the zone] is difficult.”

Despite the FDNY’s concerns, MTA Chair Janno Lieber defended the plan at a separate Sunday news conference, emphasizing the program’s intention to reduce gridlock, improve emergency response times and encourage the use of public transportation.

“Now, the good news for the core function of fire and EMS is one of the principal goals, is to make response times faster, and that’s especially important for EMS,” Lieber said. “The EMS operation, the ambulance drivers are taking people to hospital whose time to get to the hospital is going up, up, up. So that is a huge benefit, since you’re talking about fire and EMS, likewise, fire trucks.”

The new toll is expected to climb over time and will increase to $12 by 2028, and then $15 by 2031 — all aimed at funding upgrades and improvements to the city’s mass transit system.

The MTA’s promise of a smoother subway system and less congestion has done little to reassure Brosi and his colleagues, who argue the city’s long-term vision will have immediate and serious consequences for emergency services.

“We’ve had frequent discussions with the MTA, and we were denied,” the exasperated union head said. “We had made requests through the mayor’s office, and we were denied. And we tried to explain to them the very unique situation.”

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 38-year-old victim leaped in front of the southbound train as it entered the Sutter Ave.-Rutland Rd. station near E. 98th St. in Brownsville about 7:45 a.m., cops said.

The man died at the scene, causing the MTA to limit No. 3 and No. 4 train service between the Crown Heights-Utica Ave. and New Lots Ave. stations.

Commuters were urged to take buses to major Brooklyn transit hubs as the NYPD continues its investigation.

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.