From the Queens Chronicle:The bulk of the Cross Bay Veterans Memorial Bridge rebate program that has been in place for residents of the Rockaway Peninsula and Broad Channel will soon be no more.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced this week that the program will be modified come July.
Under the old rebate program, participating residents of ZIP codes 11691, 11692, 11693, 11694, 11695 and 11697 who have an E-Z Pass are reimbursed $1.13 each time they cross the bridge using E-Z Pass. The toll charge is credited back to residents using MTA funds that come from the state mortgage recording tax.
However, the MTA said starting July 23 the Rockaway toll rebate program will be modified and residents within those six valid ZIP codes in the Rockaways and Broad Channel districts will pay a $1.13 toll for each of the first two trips across the Cross Bay Bridge. All subsequent trips taken on or during the same day on the same E-Z Pass tag will continue to be rebated to the account under the Cross Bay Resident Rebate program
The fare will be $2.75 for cash customers and $1.71 for non-resident E-ZPass customers. In addition, Rockaway residents may also purchase tokens, which cost $1.54 per trip.
20 comments:
This is wrong for residents. How will anyone ever be attracted to live in Rockaway? Those who are there are trapped there by high bus fares and bridge tools or 2 hour subway rides to the city. Pathetic!
So the MTA, in charge of public transit, is subsidizing car traffic while amassing a deficit that forces them to cut services and raise fares.
This makes no sense to me. Good thing this particularly tomfoolery here is finally coming to end.
Subsidizing car traffic? More like the cars are subsidizing the subways. How would you like it if you had to pay a toll to get to community board meetings?
Maybe I'd live in a neighborhood that didn't require me to take a car to run my errands?
More like the cars are subsidizing the subways.
Explain.
And while you do so, please also factor in the billions that were spent on car-only infrastructure in this city in the 50s and 60s. This is money that easily could have given NYC the most modern transit system in the world.
It's also for example the reason why we're building a 2nd Avenue subway line now instead of having done so 40 years ago when it would have been only a fraction of the costs.
A community board meeting is not an errand. Since the subway and bus systems in Queens are so shitty, a car is a necessity.
The MTA is a bungling bureaucracy with bloated costs. This should not be the burden of the car driver or the transit passenger.
And maybe Sir Bloomberg should open up the City's wallet and pay its fair share into the costs of running the MTA since the city is what benefits from it.
2nd Avenue subway is not needed as much as rapid bus service in Queens. That's where they should have spent our money.
how about NOT living on what is basically an island???
You chose to live there. deal with it.
What a snotty bunch of commenters this morning. We all chose to live where we live and we all have seen expenses go up and quality of life go down. These people have the right to complain as I am sure you do about issues in your area.
Why is that every time an article about this matter is posted, some genius blithely decides that the residents of Broad Channel and Rockaway shouldn't complain because "they chose to live there?" There are over 110,000 city residents living in the six zip codes mentioned in the article - should they all just find another neighborhood to live in?
There is only one place in New York City where you have to pay a toll to travel between boroughs - Broad Channel to Rockaway. No one can give a logical reason WHY a toll is in place - not the MTA, not its apologists, not the "urban planners" who have used their wealth of knowledge and and common sense to conclude that Rockaway and Broad Channel should simply be depopulated.
These residents should not have to shoulder a disproportionate responsibility for paying down the MTA's deficit.
These residents should not have to shoulder a disproportionate responsibility for paying down the MTA's deficit.
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It's not as if the MTA wastes the money:
http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/news/local_news
/nyc/mta-bought-jet-fuel-to-power-buses-20100520-lgf
Queens Crapper said:
We all chose to live where we live and we all have seen expenses go up and quality of life go down.
That's correct. The kind of horse-trading we are seeing here however helps no one.
Also, I still don't see why the MTA would care about car owners in Rockaway Beach at the expense of others while at the same time they maintain a train and a few bus lines to the Rockaways that see diminished use because of these kinds of subsidies.
Jack Flynn said:
There is only one place in New York City where you have to pay a toll to travel between boroughs - Broad Channel to Rockaway.
So how do you get to Staten Island by car without paying a toll?
The Tribororough Bridge and Tunnel Authority operates seven bridges and two tunnels with tolls. The real question is why there are still bridges out there that are toll-free.
He didn't mean between boroughs, he meant within the same borough, obviously. Staten Island has no bridges within it from town to town.
Yes, beat me to the response. I meant to say within the borough.
I still don't see why the MTA would care about car owners in Rockaway Beach at the expense of others while at the same time they maintain a train and a few bus lines to the Rockaways that see diminished use because of these kinds of subsidies.
Well, they don't, obviously. It is in the MTA's best financial interests to put tolls everywhere and to maximize potential revenue - both directly through tolls and indirectly by the number of people driven to public transportation instead.
However, New York City and/or its surrounding counties are not beholden to what is in the best interests of the MTA. A patently unfair toll on a bridge that connects geographically isolated neighborhoods is not good public policy. One would hope such a gross standard of unfairness would attract the attention of more elected officials.
Of course, one would also hope that obervers wouldn't shrug and decide the best answer to the problem is for everyone who lives there to move.
The Tribororough Bridge and Tunnel Authority operates seven bridges and two tunnels with tolls. The real question is why there are still bridges out there that are toll-free.
In a perverse way, this would make more sense than the current set-up. How can you logically explain an intra-borough toll in Queens when there are numerous bridges that connect Manhattan to other boroughs without paying a toll?
Queens Crapper said:
He didn't mean between boroughs, he meant within the same borough, obviously.
That wasn't obvious to me.
Then again, why would it matter that traffic is within a borough or between boroughs?
If toll were only to apply to bridges that link two different neighborhoods, then I demand that Queensboro, Williamsburg, Manhattan, Brooklyn and Pulaski Bridge (and some others) be made toll bridges.
I didn't hear him complain that those are free.
Actually, he just did complain, and if you didn't know that the Cross Bay Bridge connected Queens with Queens, then you need to brush up on your geography.
Tassilo: Nowhere else in New York City does a bridge that connects one part of the borough to another part of the borough require a user to pay a toll. That is not because there are no other intra-borough bridges in New York City - Broad Channel itself is also connected by bridge to the neighborhood of Howard Beach. The mere existence of a bridge does not signal an automatic opportunity to collect tolls from its passengers.
Again - is there a logical explanation for why Rockaway/Broad Channel residents are singled out?
This bridge should not be a toll bridge. The residents need this bridge to cross to the other side of Queens. This is just a ploy by the MTA to make more money. This is not fair to the residents.
A historical side note to this debate.
This is something I once read about the TBTA. I've been trying to look it up to confirm it but have had no success. Maybe someone here can help.
I understand the purpose of the TBTA was originally to complete the Tri-Boro bridge and then expanded to build the other toll bridges but the tolls were only supposed to be collected to pay off the public bond issues. After that, the bridges were supposed to be free.
I've seen it claimed in some quaters that the use of TBTA funds to subsidize mass transit was a violation of the TBTA charter that was gotten around by merging the TBTA into the MTA.
I recall a quote from Fiorello LaGuardia to the effect that he would personally take a sledgehammer to the toll booths when the bonds were paid off.
If I'm wrong, don't have my facts straight, I wouldn't take any corrections personally.
A historical side note to this debate.
This is something I once read about the TBTA. I've been trying to look it up to confirm it but have had no success. Maybe someone here can help.
I understand the purpose of the TBTA was originally to complete the Tri-Boro bridge and then expanded to build the other toll bridges but the tolls were only supposed to be collected to pay off the public bond issues. After that, the bridges were supposed to be free.
I've seen it claimed in some quaters that the use of TBTA funds to subsidize mass transit was a violation of the TBTA charter that was gotten around by merging the TBTA into the MTA.
I recall a quote from Fiorello LaGuardia to the effect that he would personally take a sledgehammer to the toll booths when the bonds were paid off.
If I'm wrong, don't have my facts straight, I wouldn't take any corrections personally.
Cav said:
I understand the purpose of the TBTA was originally to complete the Tri-Boro bridge and then expanded to build the other toll bridges but the tolls were only supposed to be collected to pay off the public bond issues. After that, the bridges were supposed to be free.
That's right. And not only that. After the bridge was handed back to the city, the Authority was supposed to be disbanded.
Robert Moses changed all that. He found a ploy to basically have these authorities exist forever. He used his Triborough Bridge Authority to build highways on a massive scale and he also managed to bring the MTA in line to provide funds for his projects.
This is laid out in all its gory details in Robert Caro's The Power Broker, which is a very worthwhile read.
If you live in Broad Channel and wish to go to your post office to pick up a package or drive your child to the zoned high school in bad weather, you have to pay a toll. How is that right?
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