Ask Not for Whom the Bridge Tolls - It May Toll for Thee Study:
Tolls on East River Crossings Will Save Time, Increase Car
Speeds
By Dennis Holt
This article originally appreared in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Front Page, July 23, 2003
BROOKLYN --Opponents of putting tolls on the East River bridges
have a new set of facts, perspectives and arguments to try to
refute: a task that may prove to be difficult.
A
new, number-filled report has been issued by the Bridge Tolls
Advocacy Project, headed by two former Lindsay aides, that makes
a strong case for putting tolls on the four East River bridges.
Their arguments say that tolls will reduce the number of cars
using the bridges, and will add about $700 million to the city
coffers that can go for bridge repair and maintenance These are
traditional points. However, the authors expand the benefits.
Because of tolling, motorists wiil save time going from point A
to point B. Speeds on the bridges and elsewhere will increase
Because of technology, there will be no lining up at bridge
entrances. Since speods will increase, there will be less
pollution in the air. And about 34,000 fewer cars will enter
Downtown Brooklyn on any given day; in itself, probably a key
answer to downtown's traffic problems.
The authors of the report, entitled "The Hours," (no relation to
the movie) are Charles Komanoff, an economist who has been
engaged in city transportation reform work Since the 1980s and
Brian Ketcham, a traffic engineer who beads up Community
Consulting Services in Cobble Hill.
According to the survey, time savings due to tolls will total
some 16.3 million vehicle hours, or 37.5 million person hours,
worth $650 million to drivers and passengers. (The average
vehicle trip crossing the bridges comes to 2.3 persons.)
In studies such as this, a lot of data is included. Every day,
761,091 vehicles use the seven East River crossings, which
include the two tunnels and the Triboro Bridge. For perspective,
only 11 cities in the US have populations larger than the number
of vehicles that use these seven crossings every day.
Speeds Will Increase
Another finding is that bridge tolls will raise motor vehicle
speeds on the bridge spans -- 41 percent on the Brooklyn Bridge,
47 percent on the Queensboro Bridge, 24 percent on the
Williamsburg Bridge, and 29 percent on the Manhattan Bridge.
Common sense tells one that fewer vehicles mean more open space,
and therefore the chance to speed up. But there is hard data as
well. London has instituted a pay system for entering certain
parts of town. This has led to a 17 percent reduction in vehicle
volumes and an average 30 percent [increase] in vehicle speeds.
A third major finding is that bridge tolls will do away with
more than 9 percent of the idle time that motorists now lose in
traffic tie-ups throughout the city. This comes to 5.9 million
vehicle hours saved in Brooklyn.
A fourth set of data tells us that half of the time savings that
tolls will provide won't be felt on the bridges
themselves, but nearby. This comes out to about 2 to 3 miles per
hour increases in Brooklyn.
Another, trickier, contention in the study says that the 16.3
million saved vehicle hours equate to about $650 million a year.
This sum is based on an average value of $40 for each vehicle
hour, and while most motorists won't think of it that way, it
pretty much offsets the $700 million tolls will cost.
A report by BTAP earlier this year noted that East River bridge commuters
constitute only about 2 percent of adult New Yorkers Those are
predominately higher-income workers and theoretically capable of
bearing the $35 a week tolls will cost ($3.50 a trip twice a day
times 5).
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