Traffic entering Manhattan below 60th Street dropped by 7.5% in the first week after the start of a controversial $9 toll on driving in that area.

According to the article, vehicles traveling westbound on the Williamsburg Bridge traveled at a speed 45 percent faster than at the same time last year, and commuters say their daily trips are much shorter. Transit buses also experienced shorter trips, with some routes seeing trips four minutes shorter than before.

Early data from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority suggests that traffic has dropped around Manhattan’s core.

The introduction of a $9 congestion fee has resulted in faster speeds on some of the city’s famously snarled streets and fewer commuters on the bridges and tunnels. “The traffic is absolutely less, even during rush hour,

With the first week of New York’s Congestion Pricing toll in the books, commuters are reaping a reward, spending less time in traffic in exchange for their $9 toll to enter lower Manhattan, said the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.