Gridlock Season Is Here! And It Runs Through the Holidays!
It started with the UN General Assembly on Sept. 22 and runs right up to the holiday season. There are 20 bad-traffic days on the DOT’s Gridlock Alert list.
| 26 Sep 2025 | 05:15
Gridlock Alert Days started with the kickoff of the UN General Assembly on Sept. 22, banning vehicular traffic north of 34th Street. The DOT has designated 20 Gridlock Alert Days between now and the end of the holiday season. (
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Gridlock Alert Days have begun this year, stretching from last week— the UN General Assembly, Sept. 22 to 26—and into the holiday season through Dec. 18.
Surprisingly, Christmas and Christmas Eve, and New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, are not on the list, and neither is Thanksgiving Day, the traditional start of holiday shopping. Nov. 25, the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, is considered one of the worst travel days of the year and is on the list of Gridlock Alerts, as is the previous Thursday (Nov. 20). Last-minute shoppers on the very last shopping days before Christmas don’t make the list, but the weekdays of Dec. 8-12 and Dec. 15-18 do.
In all, there are 20 days that Department of Transportation Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez pegged as Gridlock Alert Days and urged visitors and residents to use non-driving modes of transportation.
Governor Kathy Hochul and MTA chairman Janno Lieber said that the introduction of congestion-pricing tolls to enter Manhattan’s business core—$9 all day until 9 p.m., $2.25 from nighttime to 5 a.m.— has caused a 12 percent reduction in traffic through early September, which means that 17.6 million fewer vehicles entered the zone compared with the same period last year.
But while the toll has cut traffic, it has not been enough to avoid Gridlock Alerts, Rodriguez indicated.
“We are seeing the success of Congestion Pricing in its first year as fewer vehicles enter the city’s urban core, making it especially important to stick with transit during Gridlock Alert Days,” said Rodriguez.
The worst Gridlock Alert Days surrounded the UN General Assembly, with the presence of President Donald Trump on Sept. 22 and Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu on Sept. 26. But transporting over 100 world leaders around town creates problems over the five-day UNGA and triggers security concerns, traffic jams, and often well-patrolled protests.
Re-routing bicycle traffic through a First Avenue tunnel near the United Nations during the GA for the past five years has led to one permanent improvement: The temporary bike lane that was set up inside the tunnel near the UN was made permanent with a Jersey barrier through the tunnel, last fall, cutting vehicle traffic to one lane.
For more information, visit nyc.gov/gridlockalert
While congestion pricing has cut traffic, it has not been enough to avoid Gridlock Alerts. — DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez