One of two things are happening.

Either it's January and freezing out and nobody really feels like leaving their house right now.

Or drivers in the greater metro area have gotten the message loud and clear that they're not welcome in New York anymore and are simply obliging.

We had better hope it's the former, because the latter would be devastating. Despite the propaganda from bike cultists and transit zealots, a deserted city is actually a very bad thing. The last time our streets were this empty was during COVID and it nearly sank us.

Imposing restrictions on entry to the city -- and beyond that, the incessant and open hostility and even hatred towards drivers by vocal activists -- may be another self-inflicted economic hardship that we will not recover from a second time.

We'll see what happens in the coming weeks, but congestion pricing or not, we had all better pray the city doesn't stay like this. And if it does, it's going to take some real adult leadership to stand up and recognize how unsustainable this has turned out to be and shut it down.

This isn't thirty years ago. Nobody needs to be in Manhattan anymore. People can indeed just stop coming.