BY SAM SCHWARTZ | Lower Manhattanites are getting “railroaded” (or should I say “trucked”) and have been for a quarter century ever since an act of Congress dictated that tolls on the Verrazano Bridge should be collected only in the Staten Island-bound direction.
This meant that drivers leaving Staten Island would not stop, but drivers entering would pay double. It was the brainchild of then Staten Island Congressman Guy Molinari. The theory was to back traffic up on the bridge, but not within Staten Island. In actuality, the Staten Island backup on a highway away from homes and pedestrians was transferred to the streets of Downtown Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan.
I opposed the plan at the time as a city Department of Transportation official. I predicted more traffic jams and casualties on Canal, Chambers and Centre Sts., etc., and in Brooklyn. But the city was ignored and the one-way tolls went into effect March 20, 1986.
My fears have been realized and continue today. Here’s why:
A car driver in Brooklyn heading to, say, Newark Airport, can take I-278 to the Verrazano Bridge to the Staten Island Expressway to the Goethals Bridge. He or she would pay $10.66 with E-ZPass or $15 cash in tolls at the Verrazano. If, however, the driver takes Downtown Brooklyn streets and goes over the Brooklyn Bridge onto Chambers St. to Hudson St. and out the Holland Tunnel to Route 1 and 9 she or he would pay nothing, nada, zilch.
A truck driver would save even more money. For example, a five-axle truck would pay more than $50 E-ZPass, and $80 cash to make the same trip over the Verrazano Bridge, but would shell out nothing to go over the Manhattan Bridge onto Canal St. and out the Holland Tunnel. (The biggest trucks would go out the Lincoln Tunnel). Essentially, the bigger you are the more money you save.
I’d like to tell you this is an isolated example. But, in fact, our toll structure within New York City is so screwed up that many neighborhoods suffer immensely, while lots of drivers pay too much at some bridges and others pay nothing. This causes “bridge shopping,” where motorists drive out of their way to save toll money.
Nowhere is this more pronounced than at the 105-year-old Ed Koch-Queensboro Bridge. It is the only bridge I know of in the world that is “sandwiched” between two toll crossings so close together.
To get into Manhattan through the Queens-Midtown Tunnel or over the R.F.K.-Triborough Bridge costs a driver $5.33 each way E-ZPass, with truckers paying $40 or more. But that driver or trucker using the Queensboro pays nothing. Yet, not only does that driver take an indirect route, adding miles to a trip, he or she also typically leaves a highway to use city streets to get to the bridge. (All the toll facilities have long highways leading to them. The “free” bridges are mostly accessed by city streets).
More miles, plus switching from highways to streets, equals more crashes, injuries and fatalities. No wonder that both ends of the Queensboro Bridge rank as crash hot spots. Canal St., of course, is one of the city’s most treacherous roads.
In short, we need to do a “tabula rasa” (i.e. start all over again) on all our bridges and tunnels and figure out how to be fair, how to reduce vehicle miles traveled, and how to save lives.
With a team of transportation and policy experts, we have come up with the MOVE NY plan. Bridge shopping comes to an end; we return tolls to the four East River bridges. (They were all built with tolls when they opened until 1911.)
Do the same for people entering from the north across 60th St. Not a single toll booth would be built; money would be collected via E-ZPass (80 percent of drivers have them), license plate photography and via apps. Lower the tolls at all the outer bridges that don’t go into Manhattan’s business district. This will reduce the pressure to drive through Manhattan to New Jersey. For a full description of the plan, visit move-ny.org .
It’s time for Lower Manhattanites — I’m one myself — to shout, “We’re mad as hell and we’re not going to take it anymore!” Implement the MOVE NY plan.
Schwartz, a.k.a. “Gridlock Sam,” is president and C.E.O., Sam Schwartz Engineering
