Bloomberg: Put tolls On All Manhattan-Bound Bridges

Toll Plaza May Be In Long Island City
Facing an overwhelming fiscal crisis, Mayor Bloomberg has called for tolls on all the East and Harlem River bridges to raise revenue for the Citys cash-strapped coffers.
Bloombergs premise is simple: Helped by E-Z Pass electronics, let the bridge toll plazas collect an estimated $800 million from commuters by 2006, and spend this revenue primarily for bridge and roadway maintenance.
Using "congestion pricing" schedules, higher tolls would also cut traffic jams during a.m. and p.m. rush hours. Drivers crossing the Queensboro Bridge will pay more during the morning and evening rush hour periods, and pay less during off-hours. Although no toll rates were announced, the Mayors plan calls for New York drivers to pay less than out-of-towners.
Queens motorists now have four free East River accesses to Manhattan via the Queensboro, Brooklyn, Williamsburg and Manhattan bridges. queens old-timers beat the Triboro Bridge tolls to the Bronx expressways by crossing the Queensboro, going north on the FDR Drive, and crossing into the Bronx expressway system via the Willis Ave. Bridge.
Although Councilman John Liu (D-Flushing), chairman of the city Councils Transportation Committee, is asking for more details, the toll proposal is already receiving mostly negative reviews from Queens elected officials.
Opponents predict traffic jams in Queens caused by a four-block long toll plaza at the foot of the Queensboro Bridge; heavier-than-normal levels of carbon monoxide in Long Island city; potentially hazardous crossing conditions for pedestrians; a ten percent jump on the already crowded Queens subway lines; and reconfiguration of local streets at the foot of the bridge to funnel cars on and off the busy span.
Queens Borough President Helen Marshall, who is concerned with the proposals financial impact, declared, "A toll is a wrong tax for fellow New Yorkers. We are all New Yorkers and should not be punished for traveling from one borough to another." She was also alluding to Queens motorists, who are the only New York City residents who must pay a toll to go from one part of their borough to another (to and from the Rockaways).
Marshall also expressed concern that creation of a huge traffic plaza might affect current plans for wide commercial expansion in Long Island City.
While asking for more details, Liu declared, "We would absolutely have to ensure that queens residents, and for that matter Brooklyn residents, are treated fairly and not burdened in an inequitable manner."
Councilman Eric Gioia (D-Long Island City) rejected the plan because the area surrounding the Queensboro Bridge crossing is increasingly crowded, the resultant air pollution, and the changed street system would have a negative effect on his constituents quality of life. "this area is ready for a renaissance that would be impacted by a toll plaza," he declared.
Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. (D-Astoria) said 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 Councils Environmental Committee, Vallone has already introduced legislation which would limit carbon monoxide emissions. "These new toll proposals are another example of western Queens bearing the major burden of a pollution-causing traffic system," Vallone declared. Queens plants in Astoria and Long Island City, he said, supply 60% of New York Citys electrical power.
An estimated 25,000 persons suffer from asthma triggered by power plant and vehicular pollutants.
A major key to local concerns is the street access to the proposed queensboro toll booths. The street logistics of the 12-lane wide, 4-block long plaza in Queens makes it more desirable as a toll plaza than the Manhattan side:
The Queens side has more storage space for the six lanes of traffic entering or leaving Queens and Northern blvds.
On the Manhattan side, the bridge ends abruptly on Second Ave., leaving little or no space for toll booths for City- or Queens-bound vehicles.
With the new toll plaza will come an inevitable reconfiguring of the business communitys Queens Plaza street pattern, between 21 Ave. and Northern Blvd.-jackson Ave., in order to facilitate bridge entry and departure movements during the rush hours. In addition, the formation of the new plaza may necessitate removal of traffic signals in the toll area (between Jackson Ave. and the bridges exit/entrance).
Gene Russianoff, staff attorney for Straphangers, a public transportation advocacy group, hailed the Mayors toll proposals as a rational system of toll collection that will effectively spread out the high rush hour vehicular volumes and make traffic more manageable.
Also praising the Mayors plan was John Kaehny, executive director of Transportation Alternatives, who claimed that only 10% of the commuters entering Manhattans Central Business District come by car. The rest, he said, use mass transportation, and spend about $800 annually to go to and from work. The Mayors bridge toll proposals, he said, would cut congestion by reducing the number of rush-hour vehicles, as drivers chose to take advantage of off-hour rates, or who chose a mass transit option.
Meanwhile, the Mayor may make permanent the ban on single-occupant cars from using the Queensboro Bridge during the morning rush-hours. He would need approval from the State legislature, which might be reluctant to do so in an election year.
Last week, Councilman David Weprin (D-Floral Park) chairman of the Councils Finance Committee, introduced legislation asking the mayor to drop the single-occupant ban because of its negative economic impact.
Some members of the public did not approve of the mayors toll proposal. As he waited for gas in a local Whitestone station, a disgruntled Amir Faud said, "Soon, the only free place in New York City I can drive to is Brooklyn . . . and my in-laws live there."