Bridge Tolls

The absence of any price on New York City's free bridges is costing the city dearly, according to the city's Independent Budget Office. In the IBO's annual report listing options for raising revenue or cutting costs [PDF], tolling the East River and Harlem River bridges ranks as the second largest revenue raiser, only after reinstituting the commuter tax with newly progressive brackets. Also included: expanding DOT's ParkSmart program and piloting a residential parking permit program.

The one-way tolls on the Verrazano Bridge have been a major cause of truck traffic in New York City since they were instituted in 1986. Though numerous efforts to restore two-way tolls have failed over the last two and a half decades, technological progress may finally bring victory within reach. Congressman Jerry Nadler thinks that the MTA's moves toward cashless tolling could make two-way tolls politically feasible, and he's trying to pass the federal legislation necessary to allow them.

Last night's 33rd Senate District transportation debate pitted two candidates against each other who are unlikely to ever appear on the same ballot: Democrat Daniel Padernacht and Green John Reynolds. Padernacht is running a distant third place in polling for the September 14 primary, after incumbent Pedro Espada Jr. and challenger Gustavo Rivera. Neither Espada nor Rivera showed up at last night's debate: Espada refuses to debate his opponents and Rivera chose to attend an NAACP forum instead.

The journey of the new Willis Avenue Bridge has been a sight to behold. Over the past few weeks, the gargantuan span that will replace the existing bridge linking Harlem and the South Bronx has floated down the Hudson from Coeymans, NY, up the East River and over to the Harlem River, between First Avenue and Willis Avenue. It was an awesome spectacle.

The results are in from the City Council Progressive Caucus budget survey, and when it comes to road pricing, they're telling, if unscientific. Road pricing remains unpopular across a broad swath of New York City, though among proponents, support is intense.

No, it's not April First.

Yesterday, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio organized volunteers to campaign for student MetroCards at 20 subway stations across the city. We were encouraged by his decision to focus attention on legislators in Albany, and we had one big question: What funding solutions does the public advocate envision for the recession-battered MTA and the millions of riders who count on it?

In a first of its kind report for the city, the Department of Health has issued a wake-up call for New Yorkers of all stripes: Car and truck traffic is killing us, in more ways than one.

Whenever the prospect of funding our transit system with bridge tolls or congestion pricing arises, you can count on a hue and cry from aggrieved motorists about subsidizing other people's commutes. But if the bridges stay free, who's really paying for somebody else's ride? Today's Times story about the last phase of Manhattan Bridge reconstruction is a welcome reminder that the city's bridges are already costly: