Drivers have to pay full toll again crossing the Cross Bay Bridge

Patch

The MTA is suspending a planned toll rebate for Queens residents driving across the Cross Bay Bridge as its revenue plummets during the coronavirus pandemic, state legislators said Tuesday.

The refund, which would go through E-ZPass and apply to drivers whose cars are registered in Queens, was due to go into effect this summer but is now indefinitely postponed.

"To say I'm disappointed by the postponement of the Queens Resident Cross Bay Bridge Rebate is an understatement, but I understand that the MTA is experiencing never before seen economic hardship and tough decisions have to be made during unprecedented times," Assembly Member Stacey Pheffer Amato said. "We fought so hard for this, for our communities, and it was seen as something that would never be able to happen."

Under the current rebate program, Broad Channel and Far Rockaway residents pay a discounted toll of $1.41 with their E-ZPass, then receive a refund for that amount from the MTA, which operates several bridges citywide.

Crossing the bridge, which connects Far Rockaway to the rest of the borough, costs other drivers $2.29 with an E-ZPass or $4.75 without one, according to the MTA.

 The bridge is the city's only crossing that requires drivers to pay a toll to travel within the same borough, according to QNS.com.

More MTA tolling shenanigans reported

From Eyewitness News:

Cashless tolling seems like a win-win. Still in its infancy in our area, it has reduced traffic, commuting times, and vehicle emissions, making it good for the environment.

And it's already generating big bucks in profit for agencies that run it - like the MTA, which oversees E-Z Pass on bridges and tunnels in New York City.

But we're hearing from scores of consumers who are are saying it's a big loss for them after getting hit with fines in the thousands - facing collections - even after some say they've paid the tolls.

Thruway tolling system also screwing drivers

From Eyewitness News:

A local lawmaker is demanding an overhaul of the way tolls are collected along the New York State Thruway.

State Senator David Carlucci hosted a forum Wednesday in Nanuet where drivers told how they unknowingly racked up thousands of dollars in fines.

Most of the complaints stem from the cashless toll system implemented at the Tappan Zee Bridge. Under the system, drivers without EZ Pass are supposed to be billed by mail. But many motorists say they never received the bills but did get letters only after steep fines were imposed for unpaid tolls.

Drivers who do not pay can have their registration suspended.

Is cashless tolling really a trap?

From CBS 2:

Countless drivers are reporting that ever since cashless tolling took effect at Metropolitan Transportation Authority bridges and tunnels, they have gotten hit with a mountain of fines.

As CBS2’s Jessica Layton reported, cashless tolls have transformed the speed to get through the city’s congested bridges and tunnels. But now, commuters are complaining cashless tolls have caused them countless problems.

Since cashless tolling took effect, surprise fines have been piling up on unsuspecting drivers like never before.

Tom Reilly of Staten Island said at one point, he owed $2,200.

“It’s amazing,” he said.

Reilly did not know his debit card information was not up to date until he got hit with more than a mortgage payment’s worth of violations at the Hugh Carey Tunnel. And in another dilemma, drivers do not know when their account has a low balance – because those convenient indicators are gone with the new gantries.

Removal of toll booths is in the works

From the Office of the Governor:

Open road tolling will be completed at all MTA bridges and tunnels by the end of 2017. The schedule is as follows:

Hugh L. Carey Tunnel – January 2017
Queens Midtown Tunnel – January 2017
Rockaway Bridges – Spring 2017
RFK Bridge – Summer 2017
Verrazano-Narrows Bridge – Summer 2017
Throgs Neck Bridge – Fall 2017
Bronx-Whitestone Bridge – Fall 2017

With the implementation of open road tolling, state-of-the-art sensors and cameras will be suspended over the highway on structures called "gantries" that read E-ZPass tags and take license plate images, so vehicles no longer have to stop to pay the toll. Vehicles with E-ZPass tags are automatically charged. Non-E-ZPass vehicles have their license plates recorded and a bill is mailed to the registered owner of each vehicle every 30 days.

No more cash at the QMT

From DNA Info:

Drivers heading from Manhattan to Queens or vice versa through the Queens Midtown Tunnel won't be able to pay cash for the toll in early 2017, according to a spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

All toll plazas of the tunnel will go cashless in January, a change that the MTA says will result in a smoother tunnel experience for all, according to Joyce Mulvaney, the agency’s director of community affairs.

The new policy will not affect drivers who already use E-ZPass.

But those who don't will have their license plate photographed by cameras installed at the toll plazas and get a bill in the mail within 30 days.

The MTA has agreements with out-of-state DMVs to send the bill to non-New York drivers, according to MTA spokesman Christopher McKniff.

The toll for E-ZPass drivers is $5.54. For everyone else, it's $8. Vehicles are tolled in both directions.

Drivers who fail to pay the toll on time will receive a $100 violation. Ongoing failure to pay will mean having the bill referred to a collections agency, with the possibility of civil lawsuits, McKniff said.

QB bridge toll lowered in latest Move NY bill

From Sunnyside Post:

A version of the controversial “Move NY” transportation plan, which would redistribute tolls among the City’s bridges and crossings, was introduced in the State Senate earlier this month with a slightly lower Queensboro Bridge fare than has been previously proposed.

“Move NY” has been a subject of debate since it was formally proposed by a coalition of transportation advocates in February 2015; it was introduced as a bill in the State Assembly by Member Robert Rodriguez of Manhattan this past March.

Rodriguez’s bill would add a toll to East River bridges, including the Queensboro, of $5.54 with E-ZPass or $8 without. These numbers are matched with the tolls at the Queens-Midtown Tunnel and Hugh L. Carey (Brooklyn-Battery) Tunnel. In contrast the Senate legislation, introduced by State Sen. Andrew Lanza of Staten Island, proposes a $5 Queensboro toll with E-ZPass.

The plan also involves discounting other major bridges that are currently tolled, including the Triborough/RFK, by up to 48 percent.

Advocates of the Move NY plan believe that this “toll swap” would be more fair for drivers on the Triborough/RFK and other tolled bridges, who have fewer transportation alternatives. Meanwhile, they charge that it would de-incentivize the Queensboro Bridge, therefore reducing congestion and pollution around Queens Plaza.

The primary promised benefit of the overall plan is that millions of new dollars in revenue would be created, which would then go towards improving New York City’s public transit and transportation infrastructure.

Civil servants obscuring license plates

From NBC:

A popular breed of license plate shield is allowing motorists to evade tickets and tolls even though the plastic cover appears transparent.

The "PhotoMaskCover" and similar products polarize light so that plate numbers and letters are clearly visible from directly behind a car.

But when viewed from an angle, the characters are obscured. Because cameras at toll bridges, tunnels, and intersections are often positioned from a side angle, the plate covers can help scofflaws slip through E-ZPass lanes and run red lights without fear of being tracked down for their transgressions.

"What they do is they direct the light at the plate and they obscure it from where they think the reader is going to be," said Port Authority Captain Ron Shindel, who is in charge of security at the George Washington Bridge. Shindel said his officers have made at least a dozen arrests for illegally covered license plates at bridge toll stations in the last thirty days.

The I-Team found the polarizing plate covers on vehicles in New Jersey and New York, despite laws in both states that prohibit the obscuring of license plates. In some cases even cars and trucks displaying law enforcement placards had the illegal plate covers.

Last month the I-Team spotted a black SUV parked outside the NYPD 103rd Precinct in Queens with the illegal covers obscuring both front and rear license plates. On the dashboard, a makeshift placard read "PO DiFalco 103 Pct Shield 24212"

NYPD spokesman Sgt. Brendan Ryan sent the I-Team a statement saying "this matter is under internal review."

Attempts to reach Officer DiFalco were unsuccessful.

The I-Team also spotted PhotoMaskCovers or similar devices on a Jeep displaying an FDNY placard and a Chrysler parked in a spot reserved for employees of the Nassau County Police Department.

County looking to replace Smith, who's racking up the miles

From the NY Post:

He’s king of the road — even while under indictment for political corruption.

Queens State Sen. Malcolm Smith has billed his campaign fund $100,632 for vehicle-related expenses since 2010.

Smith was reimbursed for two leased cars, E-ZPass payments and even parking tickets, according to an analysis by the New York Public Interest Research Group.

“While many politicians abuse their campaign accounts, Malcolm Smith seems to be a leader in this area,” said NYPIRG’s Bill Mahoney.

“He was billing his campaign for two cars at one time and he hasn’t had a competitive race in years.”

Smith, through a spokeswoman, declined to comment.

From The Politicker:

An attorney with close ties to Queens County politics is planning to challenge embattled State Senator Malcolm Smith next year.

Mr. Smith, still reeling from an arrest on corruption charges earlier this year, is openly despised by his fellow Senate Democrats after caucusing briefly with a breakaway faction of Democrats that govern the Senate with Republicans and is considered a major target in 2014. In an interview, Mr. Avery, who already has a campaign website set up for the bid, directly stated his intention to run.

“I felt strongly: If I vote for a Democrat, they should conference with the Democrats so Democrats can be in charge of the chamber,” Mr. Avery told Politicker. “We need to get progressive legislation through the chamber.”

The Queens County Democratic Party, which has close ties to Senate Democrats through the shared consulting firm the Parkside Group, has been actively hunting for formidable challengers to take on Mr. Smith, who was indicted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for allegedly taking part in a bribery scheme that aimed to land him on the Republican ballot for mayor.

Mr. Avery is vying for that support but the Senate and Queens Democrats have yet to decide on a candidate.

Congestion pricing redux

From the NY Times:

There could be no more talk, transit advocates reasoned, of “congestion pricing,” a phrase Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg often used before his sweeping plan to overhaul New York City’s bridge tolling system was vanquished in 2008, and treated as political arsenic ever since.

Then, with a clean slate, supporters could move on to the hard part: sculpting a proposal that might succeed where the mayor failed.

And so, more than five years after Mr. Bloomberg’s plan died in Albany, a cadre of the city’s transit minds has primed a successor, fine-tuning a pricing model that might be more palatable to residents outside Manhattan, meeting quietly with former opponents and preparing to take its case early next year to a public that has grown accustomed to free, if traffic-choked, rides over the East River.

Political obstacles abound, including securing the support of the State Legislature. But in what the plan’s supporters have billed as the most significant change of heart so far, Councilman Mark Weprin, an outspoken critic of the old proposal, said in an interview last week that he was receptive to this reimagined version.

“I’d like to have a chance to talk to them again,” he said of his constituents, “and say this makes a lot more sense.” (Mr. Weprin, a Queens Democrat, is running for City Council speaker.)

Proponents said the arrangement, devised by Samuel I. Schwartz, a former city traffic commissioner, would increase tolls in areas with high congestion and ample public transportation, and lower or eliminate them in transit-poor pockets, suggesting that Manhattanites would be asked to contribute more than they had under past proposals.

The plan championed by Mr. Bloomberg would have “raised revenue to do a lot of good things,” Mr. Schwartz said. “To be fair was not the fundamental premise.”

Move NY, the group behind the campaign, has billed the new plan as “fair tolling and transportation reinvestment,” adding that its details would not be made final until after a series of public forums next year. It can be distinguished from Mr. Bloomberg’s vision, the group said, in part because its revenues would be used not only to fund the capital program of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority but also to upgrade roads and bridges — a nod to drivers who might be expected to oppose any congestion-based pricing.

While the toll amounts could change, an example on Mr. Schwartz’s website included $5.33 E-ZPass tolls on the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge and the Brooklyn, Manhattan and Williamsburg Bridges — all of which are now free. The one-way rate to cross the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge would decline to $5.66, from $10.66, and tolls on the Robert F. Kennedy, Throgs Neck and Bronx-Whitestone Bridges would be $2.83.

Traffic should be eased, Mr. Schwartz has said, because the adjusted rates would discourage “toll-shopping,” which can currently lead commercial vehicles and private drivers to take circuitous but inexpensive routes through some of the city’s busiest neighborhoods.

Rates could also be adjusted depending on the city’s economic fortunes, Mr. Schwartz said, potentially falling during lean periods.

Move NY estimated that the plan would create 35,000 jobs.

Big brother is watching

From Forbes:

After spotting a police car with two huge boxes on its trunk — that turned out to be license-plate-reading cameras — a man in New Jersey became obsessed with the loss of privacy for vehicles on American roads. (He’s not the only one.) The man, who goes by the Internet handle “Puking Monkey,” did an analysis of the many ways his car could be tracked and stumbled upon something rather interesting: his E-ZPass, which he obtained for the purpose of paying tolls, was being used to track his car in unexpected places, far away from any toll booths.

Puking Monkey is an electronics tinkerer, so he hacked his RFID-enabled E-ZPass to set off a light and a “moo cow” every time it was being read. Then he drove around New York. His tag got milked multiple times on the short drive from Times Square to Madison Square Garden in mid-town Manhattan…

… and also on his way out of New York through Lincoln Tunnel, again in a place with no toll plaza.

At Defcon, where he presented his findings, Puking Monkey said he found the reading of the E-ZPass outside of where he thought it would be read when he put it in his car “intrusive and unsettling,” quoting from Sen. Chuck Schumer’s remarks about retailers tracking people who come into their stores using their cell phones.

This isn’t a part of the Lower Manhattan Security Initiative, the millions-dollar project emulating London’s Ring of Steel with extreme surveillance. It’s part of Midtown in Motion, an initiative to feed information from lots of sensors into New York’s traffic management center. A spokesperson for the New York Department of Transportation, Scott Gastel, says the E-Z Pass readers are on highways across the city, and on streets in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Staten Island, and have been in use for years. The city uses the data from the readers to provide real-time traffic information, as for this tool. The DoT was not forthcoming about what exactly was read from the passes or how long geolocation information from the passes was kept. Notably, the fact that E-ZPasses will be used as a tracking device outside of toll payment, is not disclosed anywhere that I could see in the terms and conditions.

Why don't they get E-Z Pass?

From CBS 2:

The plastic pass requires an account with a cash balance from a credit card. One driver flatly said he didn’t want it, but his reasoning was uninformed.

“It’s too expensive,” he said.

The fact is, with E-ZPass you get a discount. A $6.50 fare is reduced to $4.80 with E-ZPass.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority said out of its 25 million monthly transactions at nine bridges and tunnels, 20 percent were cash. The Port Authority said 25 percent are cash, instead of the electronic device, at its crossings.

“I can’t figure why they don’t have it,” another driver said.

And of course another reason some drivers might opt for paying cash is the fear that Big Brother is watching their every move.

Traffic trouble on the Whitestone Bridge

From the Times Ledger:

The MTA recently put into place a new traffic pattern at the Whitestone Bridge, and drivers are advised to follow certain recommendations in order to keep travel moving as quickly as possible.

Northbound traffic on the Whitestone Expressway approaching the bridge crawled last weekend, causing backups that cost travelers sizable chunks of time on their treks into the Bronx and onward.

The work, the second phase of a four-year, $200 million project to rehabilitate the aging bridge, which was built in the 1930s, would replace the entire original 1,785 feet of roadway near the Bronx end of the bridge and widen its lanes and install emergency shoulders there.

As a result of the work, one lane will be closed at a time until summer 2011, according to Judie Glave, a spokeswoman for Metropolitan Transportation Authority Bridges and Tunnels.

As such, drivers are advised to amend their driving habits.

“If you are a cash customer and you’re headed north to the Bronx, you should stay to the far right because that will bring you to the cash lanes on the toll plaza. It’s not as if you couldn’t get over otherwise, but that’s where eventually you’ll need to be,” Glave said, adding that E-ZPass customers should stay to the left. Signs are posted indicating these new suggestions.

Residents to pay more for the Crossbay Bridge

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.

EZ Pass to track you around Lower Manhattan

City officials announced that E-Z Pass transponders will be installed on the bridge, as well as several other spots throughout the streets of lower Manhattan below Canal Street in order to monitor the flow of traffic and come up with potential ways to ease congestion in that part of town. The Lower Manhattan Construction Command Center will be in charge of the project, which they emphasize will not be able to detect either license plate numbers or the drivers inside the vehicles.

Well if they have your EZ Pass number, then they basically know your license plate # and who you are. Could this be the first step toward sneaking congestion pricing through the back door?

(This graphic and the one of the tweeder military marching through Willets Point were both created before either event took place... my clairvoyance is starting to scare me...)