Also today: LA pushes to rebuild homes faster, and real estate vultures eye middle-class homeowners.

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,

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

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.

NEW YORK (AP) — A new toll on drivers entering the core of Manhattan brought modest but measurable traffic reductions to New York City’s heavily-gridlocked streets in its first week of operation, according to preliminary data released Monday by the state’s transit authority.

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.