Bridge Tolls
Advocacy Project

BTAP's Obituary for Tolls

Thursday, January 15, 2004, 4:15 p.m.
For immediate release

Mayor Bloomberg today threw in the towel on East River bridge tolls, officially abandoning his idea of electronically tolling car and truck traffic on the Brooklyn, Manhattan, Williamsburg and Queensboro Bridges, according to published reports.

Bloomberg first floated the toll plan, which experts estimated would have raised at least $600 million in annual revenue and eliminated as much as 9% of New York City's traffic gridlock, shortly after taking office in early 2002. But he was never able to muster political or popular support to overcome strident opposition from officials representing Brooklyn and Queens, whose residents would have shouldered almost 60% of the toll tab.

"Bloomberg gets an 'A' for vision but an 'F' for follow-through," said pro-tolls economist Charles Komanoff, founder of the Bridge Tolls Advocacy Project. "He grasped that tolls could bust gridlock while raising vital revenue, but he barely lifted a finger to show New Yorkers how they would benefit," Komanoff said.

Although Bloomberg never presented a detailed toll proposal, experts assumed that E-ZPass readers mounted on overhead structures would collect bridge tolls electronically from vehicles traveling at highway speeds. Drivers without E-ZPass could still use cash lanes at the Triborough Bridge or the Queens Midtown and Brooklyn-Battery Tunnels.

Komanoff's tolls project published two reports last year backing tolls, both available at www.bridgetolls.org/research/. "Who Will Really Pay" established that daily East River bridge commuters constitute a very small fraction (2%) of adult New Yorkers and are predominantly higher-income workers who can better afford to pay. The other 98% of city residents age 18 to 80 would, on average, pay less than $50 a year each in new East River tolls.

Komanoff's second report, "The Hours," showed that by discouraging some "marginal" traffic trips and increasing average vehicle speeds on connecting roads as well as on the bridge spans, East River bridge tolls would do away with more than 9% of the idle time that motorists, truckers and bus riders now lose in traffic tie-ups throughout New York City. The resulting time savings, an estimated 100,000 "person-hours" each day, would have an aggregate annual value of over $600 million a year, roughly offsetting the toll costs and effectively making the toll revenue a "free" $600 million gift to the city.

Next month marks the first anniversary of London's congestion charging system, which charges drivers £5 ($8) to drive into central London. Officials have declared the system a success, with a 20-30% drop in congestion and dramatic improvements in bus service.

"New Yorkers still need the public services and gridlock relief East River tolls could finance and provide," Komanoff said. "The millions of people stuck in bridge traffic and hurt by budget cuts can show anti-toll politicians the door in the next election," he added. "No E-ZPass needed."