March 28, 2016 By Jackie Strawbridge
A controversial plan to toll the free East River Bridges is under official consideration by State lawmakers.
The proposal, unveiled by the coalition Move NY last February, would introduce tolls on the Queensboro and other East River bridges of $5.54 each way with E-ZPass, or $8 without.
However the plan would also reduce fares on other major bridges, including the Triborough/RFK, by up to 48 percent.
The bill was formally introduced by Assembly Member Robert Rodriquez of Manhattan on March 23, with 14 co-sponsors.
Move NY believes that this “toll swap” would be more fair for drivers on the Triborough/RFK and other tolled bridges, who have fewer transportation alternatives. Meanwhile, the coalition charges that it would de-incentivize the Queensboro Bridge, therefore reducing congestion and pollution around Queens Plaza.
Move NY also says its plan would generate $1.35 billion annually. Per the bill text, the new revenue would go towards MTA expansion projects potentially including ferry service, subway and bus station improvements and road and bridge maintenance, among others.
“This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to address some of the biggest weaknesses in our transit system,” Rodriguez said in a statement. “This plan will provide a steady and significant source of revenue for the MTA, allow transit starved communities to fund critical improvement projects, and relieve congestion.”
However, the proposal has received a mixed reaction within Queens particularly.
Last year, nine Queens Assembly Members signed a joint statement with Borough President Melinda Katz and several other lawmakers calling the plan unfair to “families who live in the transit desert of Queens.”
Nolan: Yet to provide comment on Move NY proposal
In December, Jonathan Matz of Move NY acknowledged at a Community Board 2 committee meeting that “Queens will be a tough nut to crack” in their efforts to drum up support.
State Sen. Jose Peralta is among the few Queens legislators who support the bill. Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer has also backed the plan, although his support is largely symbolic as Move NY needs to be enacted on the State level.
The Assembly bill has one Queens co-sponsor: Andrew Hevesi of Forest Hills.
Western Queens Assembly Members Aravella Simotas and Cathy Nolan could not be reached for comment on the bill as of press time.
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138 Comments
I will be not surprised that this bill will not going anywhere, given the political climate in the local, city and state levels.
EVERYONE SHOULD PAY! Drivers, stop crying and pay. Or take mta and pay. Either way, PAY!!!!
-Mythought Talks about tolling the 59th street bridge go back to the 70’s well before this Mayors Affordable Housing Plans. The bridge actually had a toll on it when it first opened in 1909. Queens has been the cities second most populous borough for many decades. We see you’re Fox misinformed and manipulated. Thanks for the no value added post to the comment stream.
Do you ever look in the mirror and think, I am a dick?
This is just a way to make money off the thousands of people that will move to Queens due to the Mayors Affordable Housing Plans (particular in Western Queens because there is the space) and Rent Subsidies.
Population growth is a huge factor locally for the fate of life as we know it. How might the growth be controlled? First: recognize the source of the growth – almost 100% of the state’s growth is from immigration!!!
I cycle across the bridge daily. Drivers should pay to cross this bridge. We should all be chipping in. Or just drive your car to LIC, park it and ride your bike to work.
They should set up a “suggested donation” box on the bridge; it certainly won’t return the same as a full fee, but the cost of implementation is almost nothing.
The answer to this proposal is “pfffff!”
This has to be the stupidest idea ever! What’s next….a charge for walking the bridge?!!
I don’t bike or walk across bridges. I drive. Fees should encourage reduction of carbon emissions and other environmental effects. Raise my fees and gas taxes.
Most of the residents of NYC do not drive cars. Raise it up, send the cash to the subway/buses and rehabilitation of the city infrastructure. Too bad most of this money will find it’s way into an upstate highway.
We will pay a lot to cross the bridges and tunnels because people who live in Manhattan don’t pay enough into their systems to keep them afloat. Tax the rich and keep this bridge free!
You will do what you do with everything else you get ripped off on… ConEd, taxes, tolls, etc..YOU WILL PAY IT AND LIKE IT!!! Sad, but reality.
I agree if one has the time the extra gas is cheaper than the cost of the tolls.
If you can afford a car in NYC, you can afford a toll!!!!!!!
Manhattan is designed (both financially and geographically) to be a walking borough. I kept a car in the city for 12 years, and got rid of it two years ago – between parking, insurance, and tolls, I was paying a fortune – and for what? Only to be able to get OUT of the city. And the few times I truly need to do that, there’s ZipCar, rental car agencies, or even Uber. It simply didn’t add up.
Manhattan wasn’t designed to be a “borough” it became a borough after the consolidation.
I’m fine with tolls going up I’d prefer this city to be less car traffic and more mass transit but for that happen MTA needs to get their SH*T together and make the system work for all these people.
Nobody should pay any tolls. Collecting tolls is a great economic crime.
I chose to live in LIC because there is no toll to cross the bridge and i use it daily. This suxs!
This really puts a damper on my quest to find a rich widowed old woman on Park Avenue.
To add to the nonsense of this plan are the politicians in Astoria/LIC who are supported by the livery cab industry who fear that tolls on Qnsborogh Bridge would hurt a lucrative cab fare generator (riders going from Queens to Manhattan), which is pretty high despite the many bus routes that travel between those two areas.
Unfortunately I see tolls on all bridges/tunnels/crossings in our future. If it brings in more revenue, and decreases car dependence/use, then I am reluctantly for it, so long as it goes exclusively to improving mass transit that is, and not just to pad pensions.
Charge the transit riders what it costs to ride UNSUBSIDIZED. Then toll the river crossing at the rate it would cost without giving subsidies!!!!
Subsidies are provided for a reason. Those subsidies purchase something that would otherwise cost us much more: moving orders of magnitude more people in an out of the City than private cars can, fueling our economy and providing tax revenue for all other services. Subsidies are bad when they buy us nothing – like biollions in subsidies to oil companies who are simultaenously making billions of dollars in profits. But when the subsidy purchases a greater good, it makes sense. Subsidizing public transportation makes a LOT of sense. Without it the City grinds to a halt. The same cannot be said for eliminating private automobile use in Manhattan. Taxis, Uber, Lyft, ZipCar, GoCar, Buses, Subways, Citibike and personal bicycles all can replace the private automobile, much more efficiently. So those means of transportation should be encouraged and supported.
When the “well to do” are forced into the subways, by parking their cars in Queens to avoid tolls watch how quickly the subways get clean and safe!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh please. The very few “rich” who are forced to use smelly trains and expose themselves to diseased 3rd world stations will not be enough to cancel out the millions of poor who trash NYC public transit.
Rich people use the subway all the time. Chambers Street Station in the heart of the financial district still smells like ****.
Driving in the city is a nightmare anyway. It is so much easier for us to park our truck near a subway station in Queens then take the subway over, so simple, so fast, less headaches, no parking problems…….I could care less if they toll the bridges or not……but if they do, the extra money will still not be enough, it is never enough…………
They should have a discount or make it free for seniors. All my doctors are in Manhattan and my wife likes the shopping.
The funny thing is, they would put the tolls on the bridges and astoriapost would show up a month later with a huge report saying all the money was going towards some ladies salary or private drivers for top executives at MTA. I wouldn’t like to see a toll though, I enjoy driving across the 59th Street without paying a toll. When I want to get to Brooklyn, LI or Queens quickly, I will gladly pay the money to use the tunnel.
As if this is the answer to everything; just keep raising the tolls.
You will find those most against the tolls are all the LI and residents close to LI who treat the city like their toilet and expect us to accommodate their lifestyle. They want to drive into the city, they don’t want to associate with city folks on public transportation (the horror!), and they see the city as something to be used/abused/raped for everything they can.
To be fair, the people getting in their cars already pay some of the costs of their driving: The cost of the car itself, plus gas, maintenance, etc. The only place where they should be charged is where they are taking up space in an area where there is a limited amount of space, and there are alternatives. This toll makes sense.
Everyone driving already pays tolls and taxes every time they buy gasoline. Pay at the pump and that is it. NYC has long been car unfriendly but you are putting NYC at a greater disadvantage every time you think tolls. Be free.
The City really missed an opportunity when congestion pricing was taken off the table a few years back. There is really little reason to drive into Manhattan, which has one of the most effective public transportation systems in the country if not world. Personally, I would support increasing the tolls on the 59th Street Bridge to the same level as the other crossings. The MTA needs more money to fund capital projects (even acknowledging the massive amount of waste and overcompensation for their employees [I refuse to call them “workers]) to finish the 2nd Ave Subway down to the financial district as well as even to resurrect some of the lines proposed in 1929 for the Second System.
+Most New Yorker’s don’t drive
+Even more New Yorker’s do not drive into Manhattan.
+The city needs revenue to make improvements and maintain our highly used transit system.
=Toll Queensboro Bridge crossing.
Apparently you do not live in one of the many communities in Queens without public transportation. All this toll non-sense is coming from people living in the Manhattan and downtown Brooklyn bubbles.
So you cannot are a bus? Or drive to the train? If the public transit situation is so cumbersome, then move.
First buses criss-cross all of Queens. Secondly, you can drive to subway, and better yet, you could bike to a subway or an Express bus as most of Queens sits within 2 miles of such lines – an easy bike ride, especially if we increase the number of bike lanes. There is little reason for most people to drive all the way in to Manhattan beyond convenience, and that individual convenience has a cost the rest of us pay for.
Anyone who believes the MTA won’t waste the money from these tolls is delusional. Look at the NEW WTC station,leaks closing down bathrooms and escalators. Corners cut by contractors etc.. Over Budget 2.4 billion cost and long delayed. Par for the course for the corrupt MTA. Didn’t they have 2 sets of ledger books when the comptroller asked a few years ago. Which set will we see next time? It is a TAX on hard working New Yorkers when you really look at it. Don’t let it happen. Jimmy NO BRAINER seems to be for it. It figures. Don’t let him be our next Mayor, please.
The fact that the MTA is such a vital agency for the City makes its raw incompetence and corruption even more of a crime.Personally, I would like to see an impartial audit backed up by federal law enforcement to clean it up and arrest those skimming off the top.The contractors responsible for the leaks at Hudson Yards are not pointing fingers at each other and creating a lawyer miasma, hoping it will blow over – that cannot happen.
Edit: “now pointing fingers”, not “not pointing fingers”.
-MRLIC Nice Republican slant propaganda. Hahaha It’s cutting corners when its the private sector but its corruption when its an Agency. Hahaha The nonsense found in your silly post is why nothing great is done by our country any more.
This would prevent drivers from “toll shopping.”
We know that pricing driving works from gas pricing. When gas prices go up, rides across crossings go down. Same would apply to adding a toll…less drivers will use it!
I read that estimates show that 40% of drivers go out of their way to avoid tolls, causing uneven traffic patterns.
This is all about “privileged Manhattanites” wanting to keep people out of Manhattan.
I usually take the 59th Street bridge because there is no toll.
Why don’t they paint that thing another color? It is a beautiful bridge that is dirty and tired looking… and brown. If you have to tax it, then paint it and light it up!
A sweet sentiment but it cost 55 million in ’96 to paint hell gate. The cost today to paint this bridge would be outrageous.
They paint it already. They paint it brown. Can’t they just use a different color? I don’t think blue is more expensive than brown.
Shame on you being a catalyst of their imagination !
I have been using this bridge for over 40 years! I say add the toll! Ease congestion now..I am retiring so i wont to use it much.
Anyone who believes the Triboro Bridge will reduce its toll needs to put down the crack pipe.
If you live in NYC and pay taxes you should be able to drive in your city without a toll. I understand why Hudson river crossing have tolls but I live in Queens and I should have a free option to drive into Manhattan. Same with those who live in Brooklyn.
So If I want to catch a flight from Newark I have to pay two tolls. Maybe have an EZ pass option pinned to your address. If you live in NYC you don’t pay the toll.
Should the people who commute from the Hudson valley area have to pay? Because they don’t live in the city?
Why? Should subways and buses be free too? What is so special about people with cars? If I have to pay to get around the city by bus or train, why is it so wrong to ask that you pay to cross a bridge that is expensive to maintain? I pay taxes too.
Settle down. If the poster thinks it’s ok for the Hudson River crossing to be tolled- then this bridge should be tolled too. I wasn’t saying it should be free. Everyone should pay.
The real issue with NYC is that Manhattan is the epicenter for everything; (when i say Manhattan i mean 72 nd street down to Battery Park). This is why Manhattan is crowded and there is always gridlock.
All free crossings do is create a lot of traffic on residential roads as many drivers get off highways and drive through public streets too avoid paying tolls. This is a big problem on the Bronx crossings and the Queensboro Bridge. Congestion Pricing would tremendously improve the lives of the people living the surrounding neighborhoods as it would keep more cars on the highway and off their neighborhood streets.
I’m someone who drives all over the city. It’s much more efficient a use of time and money to pay have a toll, unless you’re traveling at an extremely off-peak hour.
Take public transportation if paying tolls is going to be a hassle for you, as its virtually unavoidable for out-of-state trips.
For some people it’s not a luxury but a necessity!
I have to drive my son to a specialized school everyday, because there’s no alternative for him in queens! And I wish we could just take the subway but we can’t…and now we have to pay a toll because the city, with all the money that it raises, cannot have better management
The 59th Street Bridge is at the end of Queens Boulevard. It is not hard to get to from the LIE or the Grand Central Parkway. It usually does already have a lot of traffic on it and with tolls would be much worse.
A ton of the traffic going over the bridge diverts from the LIE before reaching the mid-town tunnel. VanDam street is filled with not just cars, but giant tractor trailers. All that traffic passes by LaGuardia Community College and about 5 high schools near VanDam and Tomspon. About 50,000 people go to these schools during the day, and we have seen deaths and serious injuries caused by drivers in this area. A toll would both cause many diverting from the Midtown Tunnel to simply stay on the LIE and it will cause others to rethink the cost/benefit of driving their car in to Manhattan.
Please toll those emerging from the LIE. Yes, get the drivers diverting to our bridge, before they eat up our air. Tell them to take the LIRR, without tolling the Brooklyn and Queensboro bridges. NYC might also have the Port Authority hollow out some of the Palisades, for parking of cars, before electric shuttles deliver folks to off ramps near destinations where busses await (electric?).
Once a toll/tax is put in place, the income gets drilled into budgets…the technology–cars–becomes set in concrete.
I’m not against public transit by any means- I simply think the best bet for at least the NYC based products is a set fee. Bridges, Tunnels, Subways, Busses, Ferries, and LIRR/MNR within the city limits should all be a fixed price, ideally closing in on breaking even with costs.
I would say is fairly a way to generate revenue for the city and the state. That’s just my thought.
Virtually always, if I’ve driven a car and was to go into Manhattan from, say, Queens or Long Island, I’d park my car for free on the street somewhere in Queens (as close to Manhattan as I could or otherwise less close to Manhattan but within a reasonable or semi-reasonable walk to a subway station) where there were no restrictions on doing so and then walk to the nearest subway station to go to Manhattan.
This is a good point. What is the actual outcome for queens? It may actually be a worse situation for parking and more crowded subways and trains. Would the solution be to direct some revenue toward park and rides toward the outskirts on the lower use lines or in conjunction with express buses? How will this impact planned service changes like the L shutdown? Nothing happens in a vaacum.
I think cars should be banned from Manhattan with the exception of taxis, busses and heavily taxed cars. There should be satellite lots for people who must have cars. A lot of cities in Europe already do this such as Florence. Some Avenues should be converted to bike lanes while others should be turned into parks. Trollies should run above ground. Quality of life issues in Manhattan are noise, pollution and crowded mass transit.
Just the very comparison of Florence to NYC is asinine! Come on now! Geez
Um, just to be clear, I was not comparing the two cities. Just the fact that one does not allow cars in the city center. Your panties are a bit too tight.
When i worked in Manhattan..It was totally worth it IF and ONLY if I had the time. IT took longer, but I absolutely saved money. While I used a bit more in gas, the Tolls actually cost me more than the extra gas that I used, so I definitely saved. So It all comes down to what you value most on that day….. Time, or Money
Because NYC has a crime syndicate known as the MTA that has a chokehold on its citizens. It holds them up by their ankles and shakes every dime, penny, and piece of pocket lint that may be hiding in their pants. And the politicians and the police and the law just turn there heads.
It’s another form of consumption tax.
the fact that it is continuing to be put forth for consideration I believe is simply a smokescreen tor the eventual reality that will be. These things need to be done delicately. If the city wants it the city gets it.
All – take the 7 if it ever runs.
JVB supporting rezoning, tolls (even if not in the council) and selling out Queens to move to Gracie Mansion….
How about this….people who dont want a toll on the 59 street bridge….why dont you guys go voice your displeasure with the bullsh#t organization that is the MTA.
So many overpaid, underperforming ass#oles with fat pensions.
The beast that is the MTA has way to many expenses (union salaries and benefits) and to few people who actually care.
Therefore, they need to constantly raise tickets prices for trains and tolls for bridges. Thats the easy way out – always increasing costs for those who commute.
Its all crap.
http://nypost.com/2015/07/16/heres-why-your-subway-fare-keeps-going-up/
Lets be realistic. The tolls subsidize the Subway and buses. The real cost of the subway should be about $5 per ride if you look at what it actually costs to run the system.
Most of the MTAs costs are in either labor (and pensions) that are overly generous or capital projects and maintenance that are bloated because of failures to maintain infrastructure due to the need to cover labor costs (which pushes off the needed maintenance). The cost to ride is essentially inelastic and the toll on the bridge essentially keeps the subway cost as such. Since the MTA is monopololistic in controlling both means of access over the river adding a toll actually insures the subway price will actually go up, not down due to this economic relationship in the long run. The lack of competition and the labor costs force this outcome because an alternative revenue stream exists in tolling the bridge.
This is one of the biggest problems facing America today, unions and pensions.
-brooklynmc This “problem facing America” is the result of the problem of “kicking the can down the road”. Being allowed to defer funding obligations to make their term in office seem much more financially viable than it really is or was. You need to take a class that teaches the difference between cause and effect. This way you’re not constantly deceived by con artists, you’re quite naive. Are you still crying about your cousin the unionized plumber?
#blamefoxnews: Mac, is that you? Did your other personality finally take over?
The problem is not the union or the pension per se, rather it is the lack of negotiated outcomes. The failure is that the costs can merely be pushed onto the consumer. This is no different in the capital markets where the benefit of the shareholder is placed as paramount. When there is inelasticity the incentive evaporates because those who ride will pay since the demand curve will not shift if there is no alternative or when the alternative is controlled by the same entity, oligopoly, or cartel. This is basic economics irrespective of political bend the unions do serve a purpose but it does drive up costs, but that is their point to protect their members.
#blamefoxnews
You are very immature, I should just ignore you. Labor costs are absolutely one of the biggest problems facing us today, along with pensions, which includes healthcare. Just why do you think manufacturing has left the United States?
Will this also mean a tax on the Williamsburg and Brooklyn Bridges? I doubt it, the neighborhoods near those two bridges have much more political power than Western Queens does. It is clear that the organization promoting this bogus legislation views Queens as “hard to crack.” It is a reinforcement of society and elected officials teaching the “others” how to act.
In this case:
Others= car drivers and residents of Queens, the most diverse borough in the nation.
Actually yes. All of those bridges will be tolled. There is no conspiracy against people in Queens. Maybe visit the website and read about the plan first?
I can imagine how many people go out of their not to pay a toll. They have some valid points.
Eventually there will be tolls. It is too big a cash cow for the money mongers of the MTA and NYC. Like the NY Lotto….money ‘meant’ for system wide school improvements is a big lie. At this point I believe every public school SHOULD HAVE BEEN upgraded and modernized if not completely rebuilt. Soon it will cost you a tank of gas to just enter MANHATTAN! What a RIPOFF! Hey aren’t parking fines etc due to be raised again?!!! and what about our beautiful city streets? WHAT A JOKE!
Don’t forget the highest tax on tobacco in the country that is supposed to be used entirely on anti-smoking campaigns, but is used on whatever they want.
That right you reminded me! Smoking has decreased in NYC because a carton is over 100 dollars. Same logic applies to almost everything. Add a fee and people will decrease usage or just use the nearest bridge. I know plenty of people who just use this bridge because it is free.
Or has smoking decreased only in sales? People found cheaper ways to smoke. And smoking isn’t “cool” anymore. Kids these days “vape”. Where have all the Marlboro men gone?
How about charging tourists per photograph?
Would walkers/bikers be charged to visit or cross?
Ridiculous
Though I don’t want a car tax, I am amazed that there isn’t one already. The big question is when will they start charging for usage of the bike lanes? I guarantee that will come some day. Nothing is free.
no car tax?!!!! cars are maybe the most heavily taxed ‘luxury’ item one can have here in ole ny
Charging for use of the bike lanes actually would make no sense. Policy should be to encourage their use. Bikes do not cause the wear and tear to roads that cars do, they take up a tenth of the space, do not pollute, and improve the health of the user. Each of those things is a tangible benefit to society that can be expressed in real dollars. So creating a barrier to the use of bike lanes – some of the cheapest road infrastructure to create – in the form of a fee would actually cost us more. Instead of making policy based on our pet peeves and simplistic comparisons between unlike things, lets look to the cost benefit of the thing, and choose the policies that give us the greatest benefit at the least cost. Continuing to support the use of personal automobiles in this dense urban environment has a huge cost, with very little benefit. Citywide car ownership is less than 50% of household. Manhattan car ownership is actually only about 24% of households, and even in Central Queens where I live car ownership is only about 60% of households. And most of these cars sit idle going no where – as can be attested to a few days after a heavy snow fall when you see how many cars are still parked covered in snow. Deliberate rational policy disfavors car usage in the city. And before you think it, I own a car, and I pay to garage it. I don’t ask society for a freebie to park it on the street taking up valuable real estate. Bikes impose almost no cost on society and deliver several significant benefits. Cars impose huge costs on society [parking space, driving space, pollution, crashes, roadway damage], and the benefits are limited since there are alternative means of transportation which should be prioritized instead.
People commenting against the Tolls are RIGHT. Another unnecessary tax on New York Cityresidents. MTA is a bloated agency that can’t be trusted. Keep taxing people in NYC to death and you will have no city left.
It’s not a tax, it’s a toll. There’s a difference
-Astoria Resident To someone paying a toll, a tax, a fee or any other payment description or classification the difference is irrelevant.
Its a user fee. how’s that? People gladly hand over ridiculous amounts of money to attend sports events and concerts, just to fill the pockets of millionaires. People spend extra for the sports package for their fancy new car. And everyone has the big screen TV, game console, sound system in their living room. But damn, ask for $5 to keep a bridge safe or fund mass transit which is the better way for people to get around, and we have a tax revolt on our hands. By all means enjoy the luxuries your hard work has earned you, I have my own share of these things too, but the infrastructure the City depends on is expensive and has a cost that needs to be paid. I get pissed off too at the MTA and the terrible way its managed. And that must be fixed. But not properly funding it is equivalent of cutting off your nose to spite your face.
you say tamato I say tomato…still the same damn thing!
Go focus and worry about Shore blvd!
Yet another tax on New Yorkers, to pay for the inefficient, bloated MTA. Outrageous! The car haters are at it again. The people of Queens and NYC are being financially squeezed out of their city, but who cares, there’ll be more money for the politicians to squander.
Environmentalists and the poor really just want everyone else to pay for their own ideals.
-bull Sounds like the very same ideals as bankers who put their banks out of business but still received their salaries and million dollar bonuses. Don’t forget those extremely profitable churches that get to keep all those profits tax free. While you’re out there waving your banner of ignorance try not to speak poorly of the American insurance and oil cartels. Thanks for the injection of idiocy into the comment stream blowhard.
Yeah jeez, those bastards. People who care about the environment and who lack the political power to stand up for themselves are such jerks. Let them eat cake! How dare they ask us to actually consider the huge expense, lost productivity from congestion and environmental degradation caused by the dirtiest and least efficient means of transportation in the city. I want to drink my coffee, listen to my morning shock jock on the radio and tune out the rest of the world. how dare they inconvenience me. How dare they try and make things fairer for everyone. I want what’s mine and everyone else can go to hell.
READ the article!!! It’s all to decrease congestion for all the out of state transplants whose only dream in life was to move to NY and live around a bridge!!! The bridge was there first! Didn’t they see it???!
I agree! Same would apply if there were free subway stations. People would be marching, biking etc by the hundreds for a free ride. The same applies to a bridge with no toll. Many use it to avoid paying a toll elsewhere. I say even out the fee throughout the bridges.
I am a longtime resident of Sunnyside and am for tolls on the 59th Street bridge. I think our neighborhood draws too much traffic from vehicles trying to avoid the current toll bridges. A toll on all bridges would even out traffic patterns.
Then take off the tolls on the other bridges and tunnels. All B&T’s should be free! Starve the government beast!
-craic dealer Typical low information Republican response. Break the Gov’t and then turn around and tell everybody it doesn’t work. Don’t forget I still appreciate your help as a useful idiot. Buy Smith and Wesson it still has some more room to go up. Make yourself a few dollars,you low wage low performer. You should get a small bite at the pie, at least then you wouldn’t be always crying about nickels and dimes all the time.
This is just a bogus attempt to levy a tax on New Yorkers to raise money for transport and infrastructure. The state should be paying for it out of our tax dollars! Please, please go to http://nyc.smartparticipation.com to make your voice heard! Say NO to tolls on the East River bridges and congestion pricing!
The MTA is an agency bent on providing better public transit and reducing cars on the road; yet without drivers paying the bridge and tunnel tolls the agency would go completely bankrupt.
Take the subway! Come on, paying tolls is part of driving. Road construction and maintenance costs money. The general public doesn’t like being taxed, so the government taxes those who use the public good (i.e. the roads, bridges, traffic signals, etc.) in order to be able to maintain it. So, unless you like driving on dirt/mud roads, pay the toll.
This is a bogus tax so go to the state and tell it to pay instead… Ummm..ok. Where does the State get the money? I bet if the State Legislature instead proposed just a general tax raise you would be one of those commenting on how the State already collects enough taxes and we should fight this, etc. C’mon people you can’t have it both ways. You can’t demand the State to pay for something we absolutely need, then bitch when it turns out there is a cost to you associated with that. Transportation is the life blood of the City and its economy. Transportation infrastructure is VERY expensive. It has a cost. Free bridges are absurd. The money needs to be raised and our transportation priorities need to be shifted.
More unnecessary tax on the public. Does the assembly have nothing better to do except tax us to death. This is nit a state issue but a city issue.
Here’s Robert Rodriquez’s and Van Bumer’s contact info. Tell them NO to their unions, NO to their corrupt MTA unions and their crap service! they can’t event run the 7 train and they want more!
http://assembly.state.ny.us/mem/Robert-J-Rodriguez/contact/
http://jimmyvanbramer.com/contact
Oh, please! Why don’t you post your email also and keep us all updated!
The Freedom of Speech is not to talk about the weather or to call people stupid. It’s to call out an out-of-control government and tell them to keep doing a good job or stop doing a crappy job. They are servants not rulers.
-craic dealer Your post about “starving” our Gov’t is subversive speech. Next time offer a solution or give a reason with details as to why a policy may be unfavorable. That’s the purpose of freedom of speech.
-craic dealer You sound like a sucker who has a two dimensional take on macroeconomic issues regarding the economy. You’re a low information imbecile of a sucker who believes “right to work for less” propaganda. You’re stupid enough to believe low wages will set you free and are actually good for a Capitalist country that uses a consumer driven market economy and a progressive system of taxation to maintain infrastructure and a national defense. Why don’t you move to Oklahoma, Arkansas, South Carolina or one of the other impoverished Right to work states? RTW legislation keeps people poor and society substandard.That is a fact just list the poorest states, the states with the lowest wages, highest crime, highest divorce rates, highest teen pregnancy rates all Right to work states. Why would you want to implement proven failed policies in one of the most productive, wealthier and successful places in the nation? You’re a low information imbecile. Oh by the way your status as useful idiot is still greatly appreciated. My target price for my Smith and Wesson is coming soon.
This is Bloomberg’s plan, continued. His fellow billionaires can pay for goods, services that need to be trucked in, electricians, support for every aspect of life, presently now in Queens beleaguered small business zones.
And elderly and those needing medical care? We use Cornell for my husband’s chronic illnesses. Too old to use even reduced fares, those marooned Queens residents will be cut off even more.
Manhattan cultural institutions and libraries, even further away.
The Bridges were bought and paid for decades ago, including Staten Island’s. That was the excuse for that onerous toll.
Guess what? Bike lanes kill young people. T
hese tolls will kill the elderly. Bike lanes are a poor response to enlightened transportation policies.
New York=Calcutta.
Car drivers are paying your subway fare. Without cars, the subway would be $5 bucks a ride.
This just isn’t true remotely. Car drivers are not even paying the cost for the upkeep of the roads and bridges they drive on, which is one of the reasons this plan is needed. Roads and transit are far more supported by general taxes – including huge federal subsidies. Moreover, doing everything we can to make mass transit more efficient decreases congestion and reduces wear and tear on our roads and bridges – both things that cost the economy huge amounts of money. Personal automobiles in an urban area are the absolute least efficient means of transportation. That is a fact. All you all are really arguing about is personal preference. You like your car and you’ll be damned to leave it at home. Good for you, but it makes terrible policy to listen to you.
Check the facts. The tolls are profit engine far above the actual costs of roads and maintenance that are not applied. This is another tax, nothing more, nothing less. Just like the tolls paid for the Freedom Tower and the skeleton station monstrosity.
60% percent of NYC residents already pay to go into Manhattan, it’s called taking the subway. Why should drivers get a free ride when all they do is make Manhattan gridlocked, drive up pollution with all the engine idling while sitting in traffic, and damaging the streets and infrastructure!!!
Some people have a trunk load of tools they have to bring to work which they can’t carry on a subway. Then of course there are those who are in cabs and delivery trucks. You speak as if people are out joy riding during the week.
ALL Cars should pay their share of crowding Manhattan.
Astoria residents point is that some people can’t just hop on the subway when they NEED to drive in with a trunk full of tools as the example gives
Some people, but very few in the total scheme of things. You cannot possibly suggest that all those single occupancy vehicles we see going over the bridge are all carpenters and plumbers. C’mon. And if you are using your commercial van then your toll will be capped at 1 roundtrip for the day. about 11 bucks. It is real money but easily passed on to your customers or even absorbed like the expense of the parking tickets you often have to deal with anyway. AND it is a business deduction, so in the end the real cost is about 1/3 less. This is a total straw man argument.
Plus commercial vehicles would benefit if people drive less because they can make deliveries faster. Time is money. Many people can’t understand that though.
Ridiculous — NEXT!
Yes to tolls I ‘ll pay them. Bike riders benefit from the same roads so I say make them pay a license and registration fees and tolls like cars do. I’m going to suggest it as a way to raise revenue for the new bike lanes and needed infrastructure repairs
If Bike riders pay a toll you’ll only be making the subways more crowded. Why would bike riders pay an expensive toll that is more than taking the subway? Think about that logic…. Promoting a way of travel that does not pollute the environment should be rewarded not taxed. Have the polluters pay… I for one rather have air that is clean.
Bike riders already pay taxes like everyone else, which is the primary source of funds for roadways. Moreover, they do not cause anything like [virtually nil actually] the type of wear and tear that a 2,000lbs car or 10,000 lbs truck causes to a road, so there is no real similarity between the two. The comparison is nonsensical. Besides, the better policy is to shift as many people who are capable of bicycling to bikes in order to alleviate congestion, pollution and road damage and improve health – that is worth not tolling or creating other barriers to people who can ride bikes.