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NYC’s Congestion Pricing Actually Working? & Companies Want Ivy-Leaguers Again

27 min episode · 2 min read

Episode

27 min

Read time

2 min

Topics

Productivity, Health & Wellness, Leadership

AI-Generated Summary

Key Takeaways

  • Congestion Pricing Results: NYC's $9 toll below 60th Street eliminated 73,000 daily vehicles, increased Lincoln Tunnel speeds 51%, Queens Midtown Tunnel 24%, and Manhattan Bridge 29%, while business visits rose 3.4% without hurting local commerce or restaurant reservations.
  • Elite College Recruiting: Companies recruiting exclusively from short lists of schools jumped from 17% in 2022 to 26% in 2025, focusing on 30 colleges out of 4,000 total. Recent college grad unemployment climbed from 4.3% in 2023 to 5.8% in 2025.
  • Fitness Industry Shift: Google searches for cardio workouts declined 3% monthly since 2021 while strength training interest climbed 6%. Planet Fitness now dedicates 50% of floor space to strength equipment, driving 13% revenue growth and 30% stock price increase over five years.
  • Pizza Market Decline: Pizza dropped from second to sixth place in US chain sales rankings as average cheese pizza prices hit $17 nationally. Pizza Hut posted eight consecutive quarters of sales declines while delivery apps expanded competition from limited menus to every cuisine available.

What It Covers

NYC's congestion pricing reduces traffic by 11% in first year while companies shift back to recruiting from elite colleges. Fitness culture pivots from cardio to weightlifting as pizza chains struggle with declining sales.

Key Questions Answered

  • Congestion Pricing Results: NYC's $9 toll below 60th Street eliminated 73,000 daily vehicles, increased Lincoln Tunnel speeds 51%, Queens Midtown Tunnel 24%, and Manhattan Bridge 29%, while business visits rose 3.4% without hurting local commerce or restaurant reservations.
  • Elite College Recruiting: Companies recruiting exclusively from short lists of schools jumped from 17% in 2022 to 26% in 2025, focusing on 30 colleges out of 4,000 total. Recent college grad unemployment climbed from 4.3% in 2023 to 5.8% in 2025.
  • Fitness Industry Shift: Google searches for cardio workouts declined 3% monthly since 2021 while strength training interest climbed 6%. Planet Fitness now dedicates 50% of floor space to strength equipment, driving 13% revenue growth and 30% stock price increase over five years.
  • Pizza Market Decline: Pizza dropped from second to sixth place in US chain sales rankings as average cheese pizza prices hit $17 nationally. Pizza Hut posted eight consecutive quarters of sales declines while delivery apps expanded competition from limited menus to every cuisine available.

Notable Moment

A brand new Polymarket account placed a $30,000 bet on Friday that Maduro would leave office by January. The next day he was captured, netting $437,000 profit and prompting Congress to introduce legislation banning government officials from betting with insider information.

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Episode Transcript

With Volley from iShares, you get access to both monthly income and growth potential in one simple ETF. It's the best of both worlds. Discover Volley, iShares large cap premium income active ETF. IShares, the market is yours. Visit www.ishares.com to view a prospectus for investment objectives, risks, fees, expenses, and other information that you should read and consider carefully before investing. Risks include principal loss and the use of derivatives, which could increase risks and volatility. Monthly income is not guaranteed. Prepare by BlackRock Investments LLC. Good morning, Brew Daily Show. I'm Neil Freiman. And I'm Toby Howell. Today for 2026, cardio is out and weightlifting is in. Then has America reached peak pizza? The horror. It's Tuesday, January 6. Let's ride. Good morning. New Year. More trivia. After a bunch of hugely successful trivia nights in 2025, we are running it back this year with the first MBD trivia of 2026, one week from today, Tuesday the thirteenth in Manhattan. If you can't make it or wanna get a taste of the brain busting to come, I'll give you a question now and reveal the answer at the end of the show. Here is the question. There's only one US state whose east and west borders are almost entirely formed by rivers. Can you name the state? Well, I know it's not Colorado because those borders are much too straight. You know what, Neil? Some of us just woke up and don't want to have to deal with that. So I'll deal with the logistics instead. As Neil mentioned, trivia is one week from today at a sweet bar in Midtown. If you wanna participate, head to the link in the show description or go check out our Instagram story. We'll also post the sign up there. So head to the link, send it to your smartest friends, and I guess start studying American geography. We will see you all next week. And now a word from our sponsor, Rubrik. Neil, AI agents remind me of trying a new recipe full of confidence and zero awareness of how badly things can go. One wrong step and suddenly you've ruined your whole meal. Or in this case, your entire data workflow. And that's why you're not a professional chef, Toby. And that is fair. That's why Rubrik Agent Cloud exists. It's the only platform that lets you monitor, govern, and rewind your AI agents so they don't accidentally torch anything important. It gives you full visibility into every action, lets you set guardrails, quantify risk, and if something goes sideways, you just rewind in minutes. If your business relies on AI agents, you need the ability to monitor, govern, and rewind their actions. Right now, our listeners get exclusive early access to Rubrik Agent Cloud. Head to rubrik.com. That's rubrik.com. Rubrik.com. New York City's congestion pricing celebrated its first birthday yesterday, and so far, so good. The scheme, the first of its kind in The United States, seems to …

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SignalCast may earn commission on purchases via these links. As an Amazon Associate, SignalCast earns from qualifying purchases.

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  • by Oracle

    💼 SPONSORS ["NetSuite by Oracle", "url": "https://netsuite.com/brew"]
  • A brand new Polymarket account placed a $30,000 bet on Friday that Maduro would leave office by January.
  • by Rubrik

    💼 SPONSORS ["Rubrik Agent Cloud", "url": "https://rubrik.com"]

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company

  • Planet Fitness now dedicates 50% of floor space to strength equipment, driving 13% revenue growth and 30% stock price increase over five years.
  • Pizza Hut posted eight consecutive quarters of sales declines while delivery apps expanded competition from limited menus to every cuisine available.

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