Manhattan-bound traffic on the Queensboro Bridge fell 24 percent in the year after the $9 CRZ peak toll took effect — and a ramp that skirts the zone jumped 79 percent, per the New York Metropolitan Transportation Council. The leisure-trip math is simple: after 9 p.m., the toll drops to $2.25.

The behavioral arithmetic is straightforward, and Queens drivers have already run it. Before 9 p.m., entering Manhattan below 60th Street costs $9 at the Congestion Relief Zone's peak rate. After 9 p.m., the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority's off-peak rate drops to $2.25. So you have dinner in Brooklyn first. You wait.

That choice — repeated across enough outer-borough households — now shows up in the traffic counts. Manhattan-bound motor vehicle traffic on the Queensboro Bridge fell 24 percent between the fourth quarter of 2024 and the fourth quarter of 2025, according to an annual study by the New York Metropolitan Transportation Council, a regional planning agency. Where 48,775 vehicles a day once crossed from Queens into Midtown, 37,067 now do — more than 11,700 fewer daily trips on that crossing alone.

The rerouting tells the same story. A northbound off-ramp on the bridge's upper level — one that deposits drivers onto 62nd and 63rd Streets, just above the toll boundary — surged 79 percent over the same period, from 15,556 vehicles a day to 27,790. NYMTC's quarterly traffic study flags the spike as direct evidence of drivers avoiding the zone rather than paying to enter it. Total Queensboro Bridge motor vehicle volume fell 11.7 percent overall, from an average of 137,768 vehicles per day in Q4 2024 to 121,629 in Q4 2025.

The $9 peak toll has been in effect since January 5, 2025, when the TBTA activated the Congestion Relief Zone covering Manhattan south of 60th Street. The MTA's tolling dataset recorded 269,183 CRZ vehicle entries on June 27, 2026, a measure of how many vehicles are still paying to enter rather than rerouting or retiming.

What this behavioral shift means for Manhattan retailers and restaurants that depend on outer-borough discretionary spending — the spontaneous dinner reservation, the after-work window-shopping detour through SoHo before heading back to Astoria — hasn't been quantified by any published BID survey or city small-business report. The traffic counts document the behavior; the revenue question is still open.

The toll is scheduled to climb. Under the current TBTA schedule, the peak rate rises to $12 in 2028 and $15 in 2030. If a $9 toll moved Manhattan-bound Queensboro traffic down by nearly a quarter, the next increment will test whether that floor holds.