Bridge Tolls
Advocacy Project

Progressives Should Support Bridge Tolls

East River bridge tolls will produce much-needed revenue to maintain vital city services; that much is obvious. What may be less obvious is that tolls will also yield big mobility benefits that will make our city more manageable, livable and equitable. In a larger context, tolls on the Brooklyn, Manhattan, Williamsburg and Queensboro Bridges are a necessary first step toward a long-overdue restructuring of New York City's finances, our transportation system, and our entire relationship to the automobile.

My life and work experiences qualify me as a fellow progressive. I marched and organized against the Vietnam War -- and against both Iraq wars. For 15 years I was the U.S. anti-nuclear power movement's most outspoken "expert" on the economic failure of nuclear power. Locally, I spearheaded a revival of bicyclist and pedestrian advocacy, fought for re-investment in transit and pushed to re-direct development from the suburban fringe to the urban center. I've also participated in painting "street memorials" at hundreds of places -- from Astoria and the South Bronx to Queens Blvd. and Prospect Park -- where drivers have killed pedestrians and cyclists. I've held the hands of grieving parents, tried to help them get a measure of redress and respect from City Hall, and gone to jail for protesting entrenched policies that privilege drivers over everyone else.

In May, 2002, as the budget crisis began in New York City and State, I formed the Bridge Tolls Advocacy Project. I've spoken at neighborhood meetings, met with public officials, lobbied advocates, and written two research reports that establish beyond any question that the tolls will greatly benefit New Yorkers in two major ways: (1) by providing substantial revenues that can be invested in transit, education and other vital services, and (2) by cutting highway gridlock and speeding up car and truck travel.

Many fellow progressives have voiced concerns and questions about tolling the East River bridges. Let's tackle them now.

"How can you say tolls will cut gridlock, when everyone knows toll plazas create huge backups?"

There won't be any toll plazas or booths or gates. Inexpensive and unobtrusive toll-collection hardware mounted on gantries straddling the roadway will collect the tolls electronically at high speeds, without cars slowing down or switching lanes. (High-speed toll-collection systems are operating now. Go to http://www.bridgetolls.org/highspeed/ for details.) Vehicles will pay with E-ZPass. Drivers who don't have E-ZPass can always pay cash at the Triborough Bridge or the Queens Midtown or Brooklyn-Battery Tunnels.

"Why will bridge tolls make for faster travel?"

The $3.50 toll cost ($7 round trip) will dissuade drivers from one trip in every 20, we estimate -- not enough to put a crimp in commerce, but enough to speed traffic flow significantly on the highly congested bridges and the street and highway approaches. According to our traffic studies, bridge tolls will do away with up to 9% of all gridlock delay in New York City, yet the decline in total vehicle traffic will be less than 1%.

"Brooklyn and Queens will bear the brunt of the tolls while Manhattan gets off easy."

Actually, the Bronx stands to benefit most, since Bronx residents account for just 2% of East River bridge trips but are big consumers of city services that toll revenue will help protect. But it's true that since fewer Manhattanites drive cars, they will pay only 10% of the tolls, compared to 33% by Brooklynites and 25% by residents of Queens. But even these two boroughs will see a nearly equivalent economic benefit from tolls, because time is, notoriously, money. Brooklyn and Queens drivers -- not just commuters but truckers and bus passengers too -- will save 90 cents in highway time savings for every $1.00 they spend in tolls, and their neighborhoods will receive the most benefit from the reduction in traffic congestion. Combine these benefits with the city-wide benefits of the toll revenue, and tolls are an economic "win" for Brooklyn and Queens as well as Manhattan and the Bronx.

"Since Manhattan is so traffic-congested, why not charge for driving in and around Manhattan?"

I wholeheartedly agree. Manhattan is so gridlocked, and transit alternatives are so widespread, that the city ought to charge steep per- mile (or per-hour) fees to drive there, particularly in midtown and downtown. But as a practical matter, East River bridge tolls need to come first, both to achieve acceptance of the principle, and to convince a skeptical public that the requisite electronic toll collection technology actually works. Bridge tolls will be the "thin end of the wedge" for a comprehensive citywide road-pricing system that will multiply the revenue and traffic benefits from East River tolls many times over while ensuring that Manhattan residents pay their fair share.

"Bridge tolls are regressive, and I want no part of any regressive revenue measure."

As a matter of fact, tolls will not be regressive. The poor drive a lot less than the wealthy in New York City, owing to the high cost of insurance and parking, not to mention purchase and upkeep. In every borough but one, renter-households are less than half as likely to own a car than households that own their home. (Even in the one exception, Queens, the average home- owner household has 1.9 times as many cars as the average rental dwelling.) And drivers who commute on an East River bridge earn almost $15,000 a year more than their neighbors who don't.

Although exceptions can be found -- we are, after all, a city of eight million souls -- by and large, the free bridges are a subsidy enjoyed by more-affluent New Yorkers. Moreover, as Josh Mason of the Working Families Party has pointed out in City Limits, lower-income citizens tend to be heavier users of public services, so the toll revenues will benefit such citizens more than their wealthier counterparts.

"But wouldn't higher taxes on luxury income be more progressive than bridge tolls?"

Yes, but it's not an either-or. I'm all for taxing the rich at higher rates, but that's a different and unrelated struggle; it's going to be a tough fight just to extend the temporary income-tax surcharge beyond 2005. But even if we do succeed in closing corporate loopholes and restoring the stock transfer tax, we still need the $700 million in toll revenues to reduce class sizes . and hold the line on bus and subway fares . and finance vital transit expansions, all of which benefit the non-rich. And let's remember that of all the revenue options, only bridge tolls can bust gridlock and start New York on the path of traffic relief.

East River bridge tolls are the first step in restructuring New York City's finances and transportation. The $700 million in toll revenue, while welcome, is just a down payment on the billions the city can generate by charging congestion-weighted fees on all car and truck use. With that kind of revenue stream, the city could slash the sales tax (the most regressive tax of all), roll back the property tax surcharge, and provide funds to trim class sizes and improve failing schools. Also, with unnecessary car use in decline, goods movement and other essential travel would move more efficiently, while some of the spare room in the street system could be reclaimed for healthful, non-motorized travel such as bicycling. New York City would be renowned not only for its multicultural vitality but as the first American city to exert effective governance over automobile traffic. This humane vision of our city is within our grasp; it begins with bridge tolls.

"Bridge tolls are a lost cause -- even the Mayor has backed away from them"

It's true that Bloomberg stopped pushing tolls last spring. But that was after he stood alone for a full year. Tolling needs popular support, which has to start with progressives (it's not going to come from the right). Every winning movement was labeled a lost cause at the start. We need to look past the next election -- the need for new revenue and for relief from gridlock hell isn't going to go away.

If I've convinced you, please write to let me know you personally support tolling the East River bridges. If you can, give me your group's endorsement. If you're not yet convinced, please call or write with your concerns and objections. I promise to listen.

Thanks for reading. For a summary of the argument, see the bullet points just below, along with links to more information.

Best wishes,

Charles Komanoff
kea@igc.org
BRIDGE TOLLS ADVOCACY PROJECT
www.bridgetolls.org http://www.bridgetolls.org/faq/ for bridge tolls FAQ's
http://www.bridgetolls.org/research/ for our research reports

Key research findings

From "The Hours" (our report on time savings from bridge tolls):

• Bridge tolls will raise average speeds on the four East River bridges by more than a third, reducing round-trip times by an average of 5 minutes.
• Bridge tolls will eliminate 9% of all traffic-congestion delays in NYC, yet total vehicular travel will decrease less than 1%.
• By thinning the traffic stream approaching and leaving the bridges, tolls will improve vehicle speeds by an average of 2% throughout large swaths of Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan.
• The vast majority of the time savings, almost 80%, will be realized in Brooklyn and Queens and on the spans themselves, rather than in Manhattan.
• The saved time will be worth an estimated $650 million a year to drivers -- more than 90% of the expected out-of-pocket costs of the tolls.

From "Who Will Pay" (our report on equity impacts of tolling):

• The 98% of New Yorkers who don't commute on an East River bridge will spend, on average, less than $50 a year in East River bridge tolls.
• East River bridge commuters earn, on average, $14,300 a year more than their neighbors who don't commute on those bridges -- enough to cover the annual cost of bridge tolls to a solo commuter ten times over.
• Toll revenue from non-residents of New York City will replace a third or more of the revenue lost when the commuter tax was repealed in 1999.