Albany Pols Give Tolls an Unofficial OK
Queens Courier
By Victor Ross

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Unable to give fiscal assistance to New York City's empty coffers, Albany legislators have unofficially offered to allow New York City to operate a system of four toll bridges across the East River. 

The move was initially predicted in The Queens Courier last February, shortly after Mayor Bloomberg's inauguration. Featuring cheaper "congestion pricing" during non rush hours, the plan could raise an estimated $800 million by fiscal 2006. 

The green light was given by Joseph L. Bruno, majority leader of the State Senate before an overflow crowd of 300 civic and business leaders at a Crain's New York Business meeting. 

Bruno also killed any thoughts of New York City raising $1 billion via a state-approved commuter tax, by declaring, "The commuter tax is not going to be a part of what resolves the difficulties here in New York City and in New York State." 

Queens motorists currently have four free accesses to Manhattan via the Queensboro, Brooklyn, Williamsburg and Manhattan bridges. There are a total of 187 bridges in Queens, currently maintained by the city transportation department (DOT).

The impact on Queens traffic volumes would be particularly heavy, according to the New York Bridge Traffic Volumes, issued by the city DOT: 

• The Queensboro Bridge (190,000 cars per day) carries the heaviest vehicular volumes of the four East River bridges.
• The Queensboro also carries heavier volumes, than the Triboro Bridge, Brooklyn-Battery or the Queens-Midtown Tunnels, which also cross the East River. 
• With new tolls, there may be a resultant drop in bridge traffic, which will be compensated by a predicted 10% ridership "spike" on Queens' crowded subway system. 

Unlike the other East River bridges, the Queensboro is directly fed by more than one major street artery. Every morning, cars enter the Queensboro from Queens and Northern Boulevards, as well as from three local streets. 

Last year, Mayor Bloomberg's budget message recommended institution of East River bridge tolls because they "provide vital support to maintain and improve the mass transit and vehicular traffic infrastructure for the city." Also proposed, was the concept of "congestion pricing"--a toll system that charges motorists more during the morning and evening "rush hours."

Gene Russianoff; staff attorney for Straphangers, a public transportation advocacy group, praised the mayor's toll proposal as a rational system of toll collection that would effectively spread out high rush hour vehicular volumes and make traffic more manageable. 

Also endorsing the mayor's plan was John Kaehny, executive director of Transportation Alternatives, who claimed that only 10% of the commuters entering Manhattan's Central Business District came by car. The rest, he said, use mass transit, and spend about $800 annually to go to and come back from Work. The mayor's bridge toll proposals, he said, would cut congestion by reducing the number of rush-hour vehicles, as drivers choose to take advantage of lower off-hour rates, or who switch to public transportation. 

However, Queens elected officials predict traffic jams caused by a four-block long toll plaza at the foot of the Queensboro, potentially hazardous crossing conditions for pedestrians trying to cross the reconfigured streets of the Long Island City toll plaza, a predicted ridership jump on the already-crowded Queens subway lines, and heavier-than-normal levels of carbon monoxide in Long Island City caused by waiting cars in the toll plaza.

Most forcefully objecting to the bridge tolls is Councilman John Liu, who chairs the Council's Transportation Committee. Calling bridge, tolls "unfair to Queens and Brooklyn residents," Liu said that current federal laws could also limit the use of bridge toll revenue for maintenance and prevent its use to help the city's cash-short mass transit system. 

More equitable, he said, might be a system now used in London, to charge motorists to drive into Midtown Manhattan. Queens BP Helen Marshall, who is also concerned by the proposal's financial impact, expressed concern that the creation of a huge traffic plaza might affect the City's current plans for wide commercial expansion in Long Island City. She pointed to the city's sale of a giant multi-level garage and Metropolitan Life's proposed 1,000-job expansion on the four-block site that will contain the bridge's toll plaza. 

"A toll is a wrong tax for fellow New Yorkers. We are all New Yorkers and should hot be punished for traveling from one borough to another," declared Marshall. 

Last year, Councilman Eric Gioia, who represents the area directly affected by the proposed changeover, had rejected the proposal because the enlarged toll plaza, the altered street system, and the resultant air pollution would have a negative impact on his constituents' quality of life. He claimed that the area, which was primed for a renaissance, would be "impacted by a toll plaza."

Councilman Peter Vallone Jr., of adjacent Astoria, said that the proposal is "discriminatory and amounts to a tax increase. The traffic" problems caused by the tolls would not only hurt the local economy, but the air quality of western Queens, as well." 

As a member of the City Council's Environmental Committee, Vallone has already introduced legislation that would limit carbon monoxide emissions. The proposed tolls may be discussed at environmental hearings already scheduled, for this coming Friday.

"These new toll-proposals are another example of western Queens bearing the major burden of a pollution-causing traffic system," declared Vallone. 

A major key to local concerns are the street accesses to the proposed Queensboro Bridge toll booths. The street logistics of the 12-lane wide, four-block long plaza in Queens, make it a more desirable toll plaza to handle 190,000 cars and trucks per day than the Manhattan side: 

• The Queens side has more storage space for the six lanes of traffic entering or leaving Queens and Northern Boulevards. 
• On the Manhattan side, the bridge ends abruptly on Second Avenue, leaving little or no space for toll booths for Manhattan- or Queens-bound vehicles.

With the new toll plaza will come a new street reconfiguration between 21st and Jackson Avenues in order to facilitate bridge entry and departure movements, and reversal of the bridge upper levels during rush hours. The formation of the new plaza may necessitate the removal, or relocation, or traffic signals in the toll area, which may affect many students attending Long Island City High School and an adjacent local parochial school. 

City legislators are also concerned that bridge tolls may be the tip of the iceberg...that the real targets are the 11 parkways and expressways that run along the borough's 2,011.6 miles of roadways. There are more lane miles of These busy roadways in "Queens than in any other borough, and more parkways and expressways in just three northeastern community boards than in the entire borough of Manhattan. 

It is also a well-known fact that both federal and state highway officials are actively promoting toll roads and bridges to avoid paying legally mandated funds for their maintenance. 

Using a system of "congestion pricing," over 25,600 vehicles crossing the Queensboro into Manhattan, between 6 and 10 a.m., would pay a higher toll than, other drivers using the bridge during the rest of the day. Similarly, 21,200 evening rush-hour drivers heading for Queens would pay a higher toll. 

While variable toll programs are used to raise revenue, they are also designed to encourage motorists to use the facilities during off-hours. Traffic engineers say that the price differential could cause a small but significant drop in rush hour volumes on such key Queens facilities as the Queens-Midtown Tunnel, or the Triboro and Throgs Neck Bridges, as well as on crowded parkways and expressways. 

However, critics of tolls are quick to point out that bridge and highway tolls never seem to pay for themselves, nor do they cut congestion. When the Whitestone Bridge opened in 1939 the toll was 25 cents per trip. Today, more than 60 years later, citing increased budgetary demands, toll charges have soared 1,400 up to $3.50. Moreover, the nighttime lines waiting to pay tolls stretch from the toll booths on the Bronx side of the bridge back past 20th Avenue, on the Whitestone Expressway in Queens. 

Some topics that have not been publicly discussed: 

• The parameters of a proposed Midtown Manhattan toll area. Will it stretch river to river? 
• The potential problem of "license plate taping" - the placing of black tape on license plates to fool the toll camera. For example, the careful placing of tape can convert a number "1" into a letter "F" on a license plate. Similarly, an "8" can be converted into a "B." 
• With the commuter tax killed in Albany, when will the City Council agree on a uniform policy of raising money?

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