By Philip Newman
Rockaway and Broad Channel activists led by state Assemblywoman Audrey Pheffer (D-Rockaway Beach) Monday took their case to the headquarters of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority for the second time in a week, imploring officials not to restore tolls to the Cross Bay Veterans Memorial Bridge.
“We are here on behalf of the people of the Rockaways and Broad Channel who are unfairly forced to pay to get to stores, to attend church, to visit friends and relatives and to get to beaches,” Pheffer told the MTA Finance Committee.
The bridge is the only one in the city that charges motorists to travel within the same borough.
Users of the bridge have received a rebate for the past 10 years, but the MTA now wants to rescind it.
Broad Channel and Rockaway residents who have E-ZPass currently pay $1.03 to go over the bridge — a $1.47 discount from the $2.50 cash rate — and then get a $1.03 credit immediately posted to their account for a free trip. Non-residents with E-ZPass pay $1.55 at the crossing.
“Putting a toll on the Cross Bay Bridge is the same as putting a toll in the middle of Queens Boulevard,” Pheffer said. “Rockaway and Broad Channel share the same ZIP code, same police precinct, firehouse and post office. It’s the only place where people have to pay a toll to go to parts of their own community.”
Pheffer and nine members of the Rockaway and Broad Channel community also spoke as a prelude to the meeting of the MTA Bridges and Tunnels Committee Dec. 10.
Bridges and Tunnels Committee members assured the Queens delegation they planned to recommend the tolls not be restored, but said that any decision would involve the MTA Finance Committee.
The protesters told the Bridges and Tunnels Committee that restoring tolls could hurt business in the Rockaways, since it would be cheaper to go to Nassau County businesses than those in the Rockaways if the tolls came back.
The protests began Dec. 9 on the Broad Channel side of the bridge, with speeches by Borough President Helen Marshall and City Councilman Joseph Addabbo (D-Howard Beach), who joined Pheffer in denouncing the proposal to bring back tolls.
“Does the MTA charge a toll to Manhattan residents to enter Midtown or SoHo?” Marshall asked. “I don’t think so. The MTA should know they made this a bridge over troubled waters.”
Reach contributing writer Philip Newman by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 136.
