Diesel-powered refrigeration models which have lengthy spewed toxins into neighborhoods with a few of the nation’s highest charges of respiratory illnesses are being phased out on the Hunts Level Produce Market.
Officers on Wednesday unveiled the primary 20 electric-hybrid transport refrigeration models that can ultimately exchange as much as 1,000 diesel-powered items of apparatus used for chilly storage on vehicles on the sprawling market within the South Bronx.
The rollout is an outgrowth of congestion pricing, the Manhattan vehicle-tolling program launched in January 2025, which MTA officers credit score with funding upgrades to the mass transit community and decreasing the variety of automobile journeys south of sixtieth Avenue by 27 million.
“That’s quite a bit much less visitors, quite a bit cleaner air and quite a lot of different great things,” Janno Lieber, MTA chairperson and chief government, stated Wednesday on the sprawling 113-acre South Bronx facility. “However many individuals don’t notice that we’re utilizing the revenues not simply to enhance mass transit — but additionally to pay for clear investments together with proper right here on the Hunts Level Produce Market.”
Changing transport refrigeration models is amongst congestion pricing’s promised mitigation measures for The Bronx, the place complete bronchial asthma emergency room visits from 2022 to 2024 far outpaced charges from different boroughs, in line with state Well being Division knowledge.
“Repeat bronchial asthma hospitalization is so frequent right here in The Bronx that we settle for it as regular,” Rep. Ritchie Torres stated. “We settle for it not as a bug, however as a function of rising up in The Bronx, so we’re preventing to vary that actuality.”
The 20 new models minimize into emissions from vehicles on the market that yearly distribute greater than 2.5 billion kilos of produce. One other 75 will probably be changed later this 12 months, officers stated.
“Changing simply one in all these models avoids the particulate matter, the emissions, of 330 truck journeys per day on the Cross Bronx Expressway,” Lieber stated. “Instances 20 — which is what we’ve already carried out — that’s sufficient emission discount to be the equal of eradicating 6,000 vehicles per day from the Cross Bronx Expressway.”
The refrigeration models are among the many first seen beneficial properties from congestion pricing for the South Bronx, which traditionally has been disproportionately impacted by air air pollution.
Bronx communities have been promised $330 million in mitigation steps that embrace the creation of bronchial asthma case-management facilities, parks renovations and the enlargement of the town Division of Transportation’s Hunts Level Clear Vehicles Program.
Since 2012, the DOT initiative to interchange, retrofit or scrap diesel vehicles has taken 711 particulate-spewing autos off the highway, in line with the company.
Officers additionally stated the worry of a rise of extra autos from motorists taking alternate routes to dodge Manhattan congestion tolls has not materialized in Bronx neighborhoods or different so-called environmental justice communities.
“Earlier than we turned the cameras on, lots of people had been fearful — and it was comprehensible concern — that there can be an inflow of vehicles and air pollution in The Bronx from drivers who had been avoiding the toll,” Lieber stated. “Up to now, that has not occurred, in no way.”
A December 2025 research from Cornell College discovered that air air pollution has fallen by greater than 20% inside Manhattan’s “congestion reduction zone,” with reductions additionally seen elsewhere within the metropolis and the encompassing suburbs.
It’s among the many advantages of the first-in-the-nation congestion-tolling plan that has additionally elevated bus speeds and improved journey instances for New Yorkers with disabilities who depend on the MTA’s Entry-A-Trip service.
In a press release, Gov. Kathy Hochul known as congestion pricing a “once-in-a-lifetime success story,” whose advantages prolong past Manhattan.
Jeffrey Miner, a 68-year-old Hunts Level resident who suffers from persistent obstructive pulmonary illness and carries a transportable oxygen tank, stated he welcomes any efforts to make respiratory simpler within the South Bronx.
“Say, from one to 10, with 10 being the worst, it’s an eight,” Miner stated of the air high quality whereas ready for a Bx6 bus on Hunts Level Avenue. “Generally, it’s onerous for me to breathe, like each day.”
