Congestion pricing turns one: where the emeralds went

One year after the first minecart paid nine emeralds on the New BK Bridge, the Metro authority published the full ledger of the Congestion Relief Zone. Total collected: 4,120,000 emeralds. Total spent: 3,880,000. The difference sits in an account the authority describes as 'for the tunnel that floods'.

The spending, in order: 1.6 million on Metro signals between Freedom Street and Downtown New BK, which now run at two-minute headways; 1.1 million on the Atlantic Terminal excavation, which has reached bedrock; 700,000 on tunnel lighting and drainage under New S; 300,000 on the Tiger Bus fleet; 180,000 on the gantries themselves.

Traffic into the zone is down 13% for the year. The biggest fall is on the Flatbush corridor, the old route between Man A and New BK, which has become — the neighborhood notes in the Registry say so — 'a commercial and residential corridor' rather than a road. The biggest rise is in Mill Bergen parking.

What did not happen: the gold vault. The Registry's basement inventory, published last spring, remains the most-read document on the city website. Second is this ledger.

The zone enters year two with the toll unchanged, a lawsuit from Washington still pending, and a new mayor who rides the thing it pays for.