It's the Brian Lear Show on WNYC.

I'm Amina Cerna, a producer here on the show, sitting in for Brian today.

Now we'll recap all of the latest transportation news here in New York City. On Monday, elected officials, MTA chair Jan O'Leiber and transit advocates celebrated congestion pricing's first birthday. According to the governor's office, morning rush hour traffic has sped up by 23%. Have you felt it? We'll take your calls on this in just a moment.

Subway commuters have definitely felt the new fare increase that went into effect on January 1st.

It now costs $3 to take the train, up 10 cents, and you have to tap to pay now that the

Omni has succeeded the MetroCard. More on this later in the

segment. In other related news, Mayor Zoran Mamdani has broken ground on improving the city's

streets for cyclists. Perhaps you saw the mayor, shovel in hand, helping transportation

department workers fill in the hazardous Williamsburg bridge bump earlier this week.

Since entering office, the mayor has recommitted to the redesign of McGinnis Boulevard in Greenpoint, Brooklyn,

and restarted the planning of a controversial bike lane in Astoria, Queens.

The mayor also appointed Mike Flynn as the city's Transportation Commissioner on day

one of his term. With us now to cover all of this is WMYC and Gothamist Transit reporter, Stephen Nesson.

Hi, Stephen. Happy New Year. Happy New Year to you, Amina. Thanks for having me.

Starting off with congestion pricing. On Monday,

Governor Hockel, Mayor Mamdani, MTA, chair, Jano Lieber, and others held a birthday press

conference with advocates to celebrate what they're describing as a successful year of congestion pricing.

How does the government define success year? What metrics did they present to the

public? Well, I guess like you were saying, traffic speeds are up in Manhattan. You know,

it may be very hard for drivers to discern, you know, a few percentage point increase in speed.

For example, in Manhattan, in the toll zone, I think vehicles are only going about 4.6% faster than they were before. But coming

in and out of places like the Holland Tunnel, the MTA is reporting it's 51% faster than before

...