Diesel-powered refrigeration items which have lengthy spewed toxins into neighborhoods with a number 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 items that can finally 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 lowering the variety of car journeys south of sixtieth Road by 27 million.
“That’s a lot less traffic, a lot cleaner air and a lot of other good stuff,” Janno Lieber, MTA chairperson and chief govt, mentioned Wednesday on the sprawling 113-acre South Bronx facility. “But many people don’t realize that we’re using the revenues not just to improve mass transit — but also to pay for clean investments including right here at the Hunts Point Produce Market.”
Bronx commuter Jeffrey Miner spoke about dwelling in an space with excessive bronchial asthma charges whereas dwelling with a respiratory sickness, April1, 2026. Credit score: Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY
Changing transport refrigeration items is amongst congestion pricing’s promised mitigation measures for The Bronx, the place whole bronchial asthma emergency room visits from 2022 to 2024 far outpaced charges from different boroughs, in accordance with state Well being Division knowledge.
“Repeat asthma hospitalization is so common here in The Bronx that we accept it as normal,” Rep. Ritchie Torres mentioned. “We accept it not as a bug, but as a feature of growing up in The Bronx, so we’re fighting to change that reality.”
The 20 new items lower into emissions from vehicles on the market that yearly distribute greater than 2.5 billion kilos of produce. One other 75 can be changed later this yr, officers mentioned.
“Replacing just one of these units avoids the particulate matter, the emissions, of 330 truck trips per day on the Cross Bronx Expressway,” Lieber mentioned. “Times 20 — which is what we’ve already done — that’s enough emission reduction to be the equivalent of removing 6,000 trucks per day from the Cross Bronx Expressway.”
A Hunts Level Market employee strikes produce, April 1, 2026. Credit score: Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY
The refrigeration items 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 embody the creation of bronchial asthma case-management facilities, parks renovations and the enlargement of 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 accordance with the company.
Officers additionally mentioned the concern 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.
“Before we turned the cameras on, a lot of people were worried — and it was understandable concern — that there would be an influx of cars and pollution in The Bronx from drivers who were avoiding the toll,” Lieber mentioned. “So far, that has not happened, not at all.”
A December 2025 examine from Cornell College discovered that air air pollution has fallen by greater than 20% inside Manhattan’s “congestion relief zone,” with reductions additionally seen elsewhere within the metropolis and the encompassing suburbs.
Supply vehicles on the Hunts Level Produce Market had new refrigeration items, April 1, 2026. Credit score: Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY
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-Journey service.
In an announcement, Gov. Kathy Hochul known as congestion pricing a “once-in-a-lifetime success story,” whose advantages lengthen past Manhattan.
Jeffrey Miner, a 68-year-old Hunts Level resident who suffers from power obstructive pulmonary illness and carries a transportable oxygen tank, mentioned he welcomes any efforts to make respiration simpler within the South Bronx.
“Say, from one to 10, with 10 being the worst, it’s an eight,” Miner mentioned of the air high quality whereas ready for a Bx6 bus on Hunts Level Avenue. “Sometimes, it’s hard for me to breathe, like on a daily basis.”
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