From the Daily News:BROAD CHANNEL and Rockaway residents may be headed to court to fight a bridge toll.
Local leaders are mulling a lawsuit against the MTA if the agency scraps its toll rebate program for locals using the Cross Bay Veterans Memorial Bridge between Broad Channel and the Rockaways. It is the only tolled intraborough bridge in the city.
Ending the rebate program would help plug a $750 million Metropolitan Transportation Authority budget shortfall, agency officials said.
The MTA board of directors is scheduled to vote on the proposed cuts at its March 24 meeting in Manhattan.
Many locals have to take the bridge to pick up packages at the post office, take children to school or go to the bank.
"We're in the same zip code, for God's sake," resident Diane Malsy, 47, said of Broad Channel and Rockaway.
One of the reasons she and her husband moved to Broad Channel was because of the toll rebates, she said. If the rebates were eliminated, she would have to pay to drive to her church and attend community board meetings, she said. Charging locals a discounted rate to cross the bridge would save the agency approximately $3.9 million, officials said.
Broad Channel and Rockaway residents with an E-ZPass would pay $1.13 a crossing, officials said. Nonresidents who pay cash are charged $2.75 and nonresidents with E-ZPasses pay $1.71. This would not change.
"These actions were necessitated by the deterioration of the MTA's financial situation," said MTA spokesman Kevin Ortiz.
19 comments:
The toll on this bridge is a farce and must be eliminated. The residents who drive from Rockaway or Marine bridge are unfairly taxed by this toll - in fact all city residents crossing these bridges are taxed. Eliminate the toll and watch these areas grow rather than isolate the Rockaways.
I don't understand why the loyal people who utilize mass transit are penalized because these idiots at the MTA are not fiscally responsible and can't manage their operations. This is an accessable bridge and is a necessity. Why should these people pay? They already pay through their taxes, and the taxes on their utility bills. Enough is enough. Disband the MTA, dump the people at the top and start from scratch.
If the people who use the bridge aren't willing to pay for it, who should? The rest of us who never drive out that way? Because that's how it works.
There are plenty of other people who use the bridge to get to work, go to the beach, etc. It's not their fault they were lumped in with neighborhoods across a body of water for services.
If they rescind the rebate,then they must also eliminate it fot the VZ.............
The Verrazano? Why? That's an interborough bridge, not an intrabrough bridge.
Tolls on bridges were supposed to be a temporary thing, yet the politicians and the port authority decided it was a great moneymaker. There should be no toll on this bridge. People need access. They were meant to be temporary and should be. Take tolls off all the bridges. They are rarely maintained anyway.
There were a lot of folks from Broad Channel at the MTA hearing I went to in Flushing a few weeks back. The argument that they repeated over and over was that they shouldn't have to pay to drive over the bridge because it's in the same boro, and even the same ZIP code. One lady even said it was a violation of her 1st Amendment religious rights to charge a toll she would have to pay to get to church. This would be a good argument, I suppose, if transportation within the city was generally without cost. But, of course, unless you walk or bike (or rollerskate or skateboard, I guess), it's not. If I want to travel - even within my own boro, even within my own NEIGHBORHOOD - and I don't want to walk or bike, I'm getting on a train or a bus. Base fare, one way, is $2.25 - about twice the residential toll on this bridge. I get an unlimited MetroCard every month for $89. I probably use it 50 times a month, going to work and back and doing other things. That works out to $1.78 a trip, still quite a bit more than the Broad Channelers, and even slightly more than non-residents with E-ZPass. This actually seems like a fairly good deal for them, even at $1.13. Why are we subsidizing their lifestyle?
"If I want to travel - even within my own boro, even within my own NEIGHBORHOOD - and I don't want to walk or bike, I'm getting on a train or a bus."
The key words being 'and I don't want to'. These people don't have the choice to not want to. They have to. There are hardly any services in Broad Channel.
ANONYMOUS:These people don't have the choice to not want to.
Of course they do. The bridge is not THAT long. I've biked across it several times myself - there's a seperated bike path on it - and it doesn't take too long. Walking would take longer but not all day.
Now, you might object that these are not practical answers. And I might even agree with you up to a point - although if you just want to go to the bank or the post office or a community board meeting a bike can often serve as well as a car. Still, for longer distances you need faster transport - I don't often ride my bike to CitiField when I go to see the Mets, and I never walk from Ridgewood. Same thing goes for when I go to visit friends in Astoria. What do I do? I get on a train or a bus. I pay my fare, my $2.25, or maybe my $1.78, to get around my own boro. I really don't see why these folks should be exempt from that. Heck, if this goes through they'll STILL only be paying one half the train fare.
I've been out to Broad Channel a few times. Pulled a "Joseph Mitchell" once and ended up chatting with a very friendly retired stewardess for a while and she told me all about the neighborhood. It seems like a decent enough place. But if it really has no services at all why would you move there? If there was no bank or post office or supermarket within walking distance of my apartment would I be within my rights to demand a subsidy to travel to where they are? Of course I wouldn't be. That would be insane. Well, these folks chose to live where they live, the rest of us shouldn't have to subsidize them.
Well then why do we offer tax breaks to owners of luxury condos? They chose to live there. Why do we subsidize low income housing?
Everyone chooses to live where they live.
The buses and trains that service Broad Channel suck big time. It ain't Manhattan.
Look, all I'm saying is that their whole argument - as I've heard it expressed in person and in the press - is that they shouldn't have to pay to go from one part of the boro to another. But practically EVERYONE has to pay to go from one part of their boro to another, so I fail to see why these few people should get any special treatment. I'd love it if we could make a rule that residents of Ridgewood wouldn't have to pay to ride the M train (or the V, when that happens). Or even got to ride it at half fare. But that's not going to happen and there are good reasons why it shouldn't. I don't understand what makes these folks special.
You can walk from one neighborhood to another in the rest of the borough to do what you need to do. Broad Channel can't do that.
Queens Crapper:You can walk from one neighborhood to another in the rest of the borough to do what you need to do. Broad Channel can't do that.
Quoting one's self is kind of gauche but at the risk of that:
"The bridge is not THAT long. I've biked across it several times myself - there's a seperated bike path on it - and it doesn't take too long. Walking would take longer but not all day.
Now, you might object that these are not practical answers. And I might even agree with you up to a point - although if you just want to go to the bank or the post office or a community board meeting a bike can often serve as well as a car. Still, for longer distances you need faster transport - I don't often ride my bike to CitiField when I go to see the Mets, and I never walk from Ridgewood. Same thing goes for when I go to visit friends in Astoria. What do I do? I get on a train or a bus. I pay my fare, my $2.25, or maybe my $1.78, to get around my own boro. I really don't see why these folks should be exempt from that. Heck, if this goes through they'll STILL only be paying one half the train fare."
I still don't know how these people are any different from any other resident of Queens, or any other boro. And if they are it's through their own choice - it's not like Broad Channel is some refugee camp where people have been settled against their wills. Still sounds to me that at $1.13 they're getting a deal.
When you say the bridge is "not that long" you are using a subjective assessment which is not applicable toward the elderly, infirm, mothers with kids, etc.
I can walk from Maspeth to Ridgewood without a natural barrier and without even realizing I have crossed from one area to another. Broad Channel residents can't do that.
Queens Crapper...you are using a subjective assessment which is not applicable toward the elderly, infirm, mothers with kids, etc.
Well, the elderly, the infirm, mothers, etc. in any other neighborhood who can't walk might well avail themselves of public transit, for which they would have to pay - even if they're only traveling within their own neighborhood or boro. So why are the elderly and infirm on Broad Channel special?
Yes, you can walk from Maspeth to Ridgewood fairly easily, though it's a bit of a hike so if you want to make better time you're probably going to want to get on the Q58 - and for that you'll pay $2.25. Why should the residents of Broad Channel get any other deal?
Is you rule that a natural barrier should entitle the residents to a discount? To me, that should mean that they should have to pay MORE, since more infrastructure had to be constructed. But perhaps that wouldn't be fair. And, last time I checked, most of New York City was built on a series of islands, which, by their very natures are surrounded by natural barriers just the same as Broad Channel. Should every resident of Manhattan be allowed to ride the subway for free, at least when they cross a river? Or maybe Queens residents could get freebies when they cross into Manhattan. I'd like that a lot, myself.
It's not that the elderly, infirm, etc. can't walk. It's that they can't walk that far (w/the bridge).
And you can walk from Maspeth to Ridgewood by crossing the street, that was my point.
There also are free interborough bridges, which makes your last point moot.
can i ask why the mta doesnt even seem to be considering implementing a toll for the manhattan, 59th street, brooklyn, or williamsburg bridges...which are all INTERborough bridges...all leaving and entering manhattan...they wouldn't even have to consider touching the crossbay toll...and what about the jackierobinson parkway..aka the INTERboro...the residents are not asking for all freebes...when I enter another borough I expect the $5.00 toll each way...however if a rockaway resident needs to leave rockaway we have a toll at both ends...the gill hodges bridge we pay for at a reduced rate, now we would have to pay a toll either way.....and to the person who says "to ride a bike or walk over the bridge". Are the broad channel residents also supposed to carry their groceries walking or balance them on a bike...you say you've been to broad channel then you must have realized that their isn't a grocery store in the town or a doctor and the nearest hospital is about 5 miles away....I guess they should ride or walk there too...?
can i ask why the mta doesnt even seem to be considering implementing a toll for the manhattan, 59th street, brooklyn, or williamsburg bridges...which are all INTERborough bridges...all leaving and entering manhattan...they wouldn't even have to consider touching the crossbay toll...and what about the jackierobinson parkway..aka the INTERboro...the residents are not asking for all freebes...when I enter another borough I expect the $5.00 toll each way...however if a rockaway resident needs to leave rockaway we have a toll at both ends...the gill hodges bridge we pay for at a reduced rate, now we would have to pay a toll either way.....and to the person who says "to ride a bike or walk over the bridge". Are the broad channel residents also supposed to carry their groceries walking or balance them on a bike...you say you've been to broad channel then you must have realized that there isn't a grocery store in the town or a doctor and the nearest hospital is about 5 miles away and yes there is ems and the nearest NYC fire/ems dept is also about 5 miles away (over the bridge) ....I guess they should ride or walk there too...? Come on are we really asking for that much the bridge is a necessity for us residents to run daily everyday errands... isn't living in NY expensive enough...imagine if u had a pay a toll to cross the street (maspbeth to to take your child or mother or spouse to the doctor then had to go back to get a child from school or pick up medication from the post office???
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