Only five percent of Norwood residents commute by car into Manhattan below 60th Street and so would be affected by an impending congestion pricing toll, according to an analysis of census data by the Tri-State Transportation Commission (TSTC), a nonprofit focused on public transit.

In other parts of the northwest Bronx, that number is closer to three percent, the report said.

But some residents told the Norwood News they were against the measure even if it would not affect them personally, saying it amounted to squeezing poor people.

“It’s an abuse. They need to stop raising the prices on everything,” said Luis Rosario, 56, an insulation worker, adding, “It’s always everything for the rich, nothing for the poor.”

Tyrone Blake, 41, a sanitation worker, found the measure unjust. “I’m a city worker, now I have to pay just to go to work,” said Blake, who drives to Manhattan for work and would be impacted.

Many Bronx residents who drive into Manhattan are choosing a car over a complicated commute involving multiple transfers. That’s why, to make congestion pricing as beneficial as possible, New York needs to be aggressive about providing more and better alternatives to driving, like adding park-and-rides and bus service, said Nick Sifuentes, the executive director of TSTC. “The MTA right now is doing a whole bus network redesign. They need to hear from folks who already or might have to have a ‘two buses to the train’ situation,” Sifuentes said. “The moment to do that is literally right now.”

The tolls are supposed to help with those transit improvements, raising an estimated $15 billion over the next decade, according to the current state budget. Commuters can expect other benefits from congestion pricing, according to Sifuentes, including a 15 percent dip in traffic in midtown and much more fluid traffic elsewhere.

“Commuters, whether they commute into the CBD or not, will see less traffic,” Sifuentes says, referring to the Central Business District, or midtown. Giving up on driving into Manhattan will result in fewer cars on the roads that lead into Manhattan, not just in the tolled zone itself, he explained.

That would include the Cross-Bronx Expressway, which is the most gridlocked road in the city, according to INRIX, a traffic data analysis company. INRIX’s most recent report also said New York has the worst traffic on the east coast, though there’s more to the issue of congestion pricing than fewer traffic jams; it has been touted as the way to finally fix the MTA.

But commuters are skeptical that the extra revenue will be the miracle solution that Governor Andrew Cuomo has promised it to be.

“The people that run this city misspend their money no matter what,” said Anthony, 40, who works in Norwood and lives in El Barrio in Manhattan. “And it’s always the normal people who have to work every day and fill up these trains at 6 a.m. who suffer.”