By Howard Koplowitz
Protesters stood at the Broad Channel side of the Cross Bay Bridge Tuesday to demand the Metropolitan Transportation Authority rethink its proposal to eliminate the so−called Cross Bay Bridge Rebate Program, which allows Broad Channel and Rockaway residents to travel over the crossing for free with E−ZPass.
The bridge is the only one in the city that charges motorists to enter another part of the same borough.
Borough President Helen Marshall, City Councilman Joseph Addabbo (D−Howard Beach), state Assemblywoman Audrey Pheffer (D−Rockaway Beach), district leaders and residents said the toll itself was unfair, let alone rescinding the rebate.
“Does the MTA charge a toll to Manhattan residents to enter Midtown or SoHo? I don’t think so,” Marshall said. “The MTA should know they made this a bridge over troubled water.”
