NYC seems to have a unique mix of traffic, for the US. I don’t know locals who would drive and traffic seems to be mostly taxi/Uber. How much will congestion tolls really help when personal cars are such a low percentage?
I suspect much of the traffic is from commuters coming into the city. But even within NYC, a comparatively small proportion of people in cars adds up to a huge amount of traffic. And NYC would grind to a halt if public and active transport options didn’t exist already because the city simply can’t support that many people in cars. Congestion pricing is just an additional tool to reduce car usage (carrot vs stick approach) and push people to the better transport alternatives.