Adding Tolls to Brooklyn Bridges?
Marty Markowitz was just on the Brian Lehrer show arguing against the Ravitch Commission’s proposal to add tolls to the three bridges in Brooklyn as well as the Queensboro Bridge as part of its solution to the MTA deficits. (Rosie Perez just called in agreeing with Marty too.) Are you in favor of adding the…
Marty Markowitz was just on the Brian Lehrer show arguing against the Ravitch Commission’s proposal to add tolls to the three bridges in Brooklyn as well as the Queensboro Bridge as part of its solution to the MTA deficits. (Rosie Perez just called in agreeing with Marty too.) Are you in favor of adding the tolls?
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AND I HATE BACK PACKS. Any adult that wears one deserves a heavy fine. Grow up your not in middle school anymore.
bite me. i dont go anywhere without a huge backpack. i need my stuff with me. what if i get kidnapped!? think a little before you speak.
*Rob*
Kris, do you really think that “the majority of waiters, bartenders, shop clerks, janitors, secretaries, etc. who serve Manhattanites” DRIVE to work?? Bridge tolls, unlike mass transit fare increases, affect only DRIVERS.
A hidden issue might be the impact on street parking near transit hubs. Boerum Hill streets are already chock full of people parking and then riding into Manhattan on the multiple train lines that stop here. If they add E. River tolls, it might get even worse. StuyIvy’s Washington DC parking proposal is a good one.
“I love how New Yorkers have all these diabolical plans on how to tax their fellow New Yorkers.”
sam gets QOTD
New Yorkers are just nuts on the issue of cars and transportation. In this town, you better already be where you want to go.
gOldie: just expect ridiculous gridlock (and more fuel consumption & pollution). HAHN? More gridlock if we have tolls and more people take transit?
AF & bedst11216: I am so tired of this sense of entitlement that if you have kids, you must have a car. Maybe if you have more than 2. No one’s suggesting that you can’t have a car, just pay for its excessive impact and make life better for the rest of us taking transit.
As I said before, my son was walking with me when he was about 4 and we no longer used a stroller. Parking, fixing and fueling a car is much more of a nightmare than the subway.
Kris…you’re getting off point. hardly any of those people dricve to work. What we’re talking about here is a toll or tax on the people who have a car, can afford to have a car and choose to have a car in one of the most expensive cities in the world.
Kris, how many waiters, bartenders, shop clerks, janitors and secretaries do you know who drive into the city for work?
In a taxi, you as the passenger will most definitely pay the toll. Have you not ever taken a cab to Newark airport, through the battery tunnel, or across the tri-borough)??
DIBS, the point remains (if I may say so) that Manhattan is not a separate city. Sure, it’s different from the outer boroughs, but that doesn’t make it a different city. Anyway, where do you think the majority of waiters, bartenders, shop clerks, janitors, secretaries, etc who serve Manhattanites live? Making the outer boroughs more expensive means more non-rich people throw in the towel and leave. And what then? Costs go up even more. A working/middle class is imperative to every city. Not everyone can be the CEO. Somebody has to scrub the toilets.
Most cities’ use a zone-based fare. I have always assumed that NYC does not for the obvious reason of throwing a bone to those in the lower economic classes. Even in the outer boroughs, NYC is a very expensive place to live. Lower income people would have a vastly better quality of life elsewhere. But then, who make our cappucinos?
“New York is unique among great cities for allowing us to travel from end to end without financial penalty. . . there are hefty tolls to come in or out of the city, but none to travel within.”
fawn, it sounds like you haven’t used the triborough bridge, the queens midtown tunnel, the brooklyn battery tunnel, or any of the other inter-borough toll crossings.