Subway Fare, Verrazano Bridge Toll Hikes – Now With Pretty Charts!

By on February 28, 2013  Featured story, Traffic & Transit
Feb 282013
 

This Sunday, March 3, getting from Point A to Point B will cost just a little bit more than it did the day before: the long-planned increases in fares and tolls will go into effect at 12:00am midnight.

To help visualize the changes, we’ve put together a few handy graphics.

MTA 2013 Fares For subway and bus riders, the base fare goes up a quarter to $2.50. The cost of commuting by subway will go up between $4 and $8 dollars per month, depending on whether you use a 7- or 30-day pass ($30 and $112, respectively). Express bus commuters will pay an extra $20 per month, as 7-day passes are now $55.

NEW FOR 2013 - The MTA will now charge a $1 surcharge for every new Metrocard purchased. This can be avoided by refilling your existing Metrocard. Riders who buy 7- and 30-day passes never had (or needed) this option before, but now any vending machine or token booth clerk can refill these unlimited-use passes. (The $1 card fee doesn’t apply to reduced-fare passes, or for Metrocards purchased from third parties, such as employer pre-tax transit programs.) Continue reading »

Mayoral Hopeful Sal Albanese Unveils Ambitious Transit Plan, Secures Union Support

By on February 26, 2013  Featured story, Traffic & Transit
Feb 262013
 
Image source: salalbanese2013.com.

Image source: salalbanese2013.com.

Shortly after securing the endorsement of the union that represents most New York City MTA workers, Democrat mayoral candidate and Bay Ridge resident Sal Albanese unveiled a transit plan he says will fund improvements to the city’s roadways and public transportation system, as well as make them more equitable for all New Yorkers.

Albanese’s “Faster, Fairer, and Fully-Funded” plan calls for city control of mass transit, 20 new Select Bus routes by 2018, investments in subway infrastructure, and a new tolling system that his campaign claims would raise as much as $1 billion in revenue. It also makes bicyclist and pedestrian safety a priority, citing vehicular fatalities as “one of the invisible public health crises in our city.” Continue reading »

Local Republicans Blast MTA Verrazano Hike, Offer No Viable Alternatives

By on December 19, 2012  Traffic & Transit
Dec 192012
 
Gridlock-Sam-Fair-Plan

Even as New York City’s most accomplished traffic planner pushed for an overhaul of the region’s toll system, politicians opposed to a toll increase on the Verrazano Bridge have failed to take notice. (Source: Sam Schwartz via Streetsblog.org)

Today, as MTA board members approved a series of expected toll and fare hikes on subways, buses, commuter trains and bridges; a group of Republican state and federal legislators who represent Bay Ridge are making their disapproval known – particularly when it comes to toll increases on the Verrazano Bridge. Continue reading »

Online Petition Asks MTA To Waive Tolls On Verrazano Bridge

By on December 6, 2012  Traffic & Transit
Dec 062012
 

Image source: Bob Jagendorf via Flickr.

Last week, as City Councilman Vincent Gentile suggested waiving Verrazano Bridge tolls for Hurricane Sandy relief workers, an online petition was launched in order to ask the MTA for a three-month moratorium on charging motorists crossing the span.

The proposal, which was posted last week on website SignOn.org, requests toll exemptions for Staten Island residents, relief workers, and volunteers, as reported by CBS.

“Folks shouldn’t have to pay $13 to help out in the recovery process and many can’t afford to keep volunteering,” reads the petition statement.

The SignOn.org page also includes quotes from volunteers like Heather Curtis.

”I have been volunteering on Staten Island & the Rockaways,” Curtis writes. “I love to help out and people out there need us so much. But the high tolls are really rough and add up quickly. Please waive tolls for volunteers so we can continue to work and help those who so desperately need us!”

As this post was being prepared, 5,585 signatures have so far been added to the petition.

Gentile To MTA: Stop Verrazano Toll Hike, Waive Fares For Hurricane Relief Workers, Bring ‘Discount Equity’ To Southwest Brooklyn

By on November 29, 2012  Featured story, Traffic & Transit
Nov 292012
 

At a public hearing yesterday on Staten Island, City Councilman Vincent Gentile spoke out against a proposed Verrazano Bridge toll hike, and called on MTA officials to waive tolls for Hurricane Sandy relief workers driving in from Brooklyn.

At the meeting, which took place at the College of Staten Island [2800 Victory Boulevard], Gentile expanded on the argument that the so-called Staten Island discount should apply to Bay Ridge residents. Continue reading »

As MTA mulls Verrazano toll increase, will local officials take up the Fair Plan?

By on September 25, 2012  Featured story, Traffic & Transit
Sep 252012
 

New York City’s most accomplish traffic planner is pushing for an overhaul of the region’s toll system. Will politicians opposed to a toll increase on the Verrazano Bridge take notice? (Source: Sam Schwartz via Streetsblog.org)

The MTA is considering a toll increase on the Verrazano Bridge, and area politicians like State Senator Marty Golden and Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis say they’re not going to take it anymore.

And they’re right to say that the MTA treats drivers in Bay Ridge and Staten Island as a piggy bank to make up all of its budget gaps, but they stop short of offering any solutions of their own.

Enter “Gridlock Sam” Schwartz and his Fair Plan – a complete overhaul of the region’s toll system.

The defining characteristic of the Fair Plan is that drivers pay more to go to and from Manhattan – where economic activity is strongest and mass transit options are most plentiful – while paying substantially less at outer crossings like the Verrazano than they do now.

The tolls have gone up twice since this 2007 slide was issued, but you get the point – there’s no consistent reasoning applied to the areas tolls today. (Source: Sam Schwartz via Streetsblog.org)

Under the Fair Plan:

  • $5 E-ZPass toll charged each direction on all East River crossings (or $7 if paid in cash). This includes bridges that are currently free.
  • $4.60 E-ZPass toll charged on the Verrazano Bridge – a $5 reduction for Brooklyn residents, and a slight reduction for Staten Island residents. (The cash toll would go down from $13 to $8.)
  • Other outer crossing like the Triboro/RFK, Gil Hodges, and Cross Bay bridges would see similar reductions.
  • Bicycles would be charged 50 cents on East River crossings.
  • Truck tolls are restructured to give traffic that doesn’t need to go through Manhattan more incentive to use an outer crossing
  • Miscellaneous improvements to the highway infrastructure, most notably a widening of the Belt Parkway and making it accessible to commercial traffic.

This is considerably different from the current system. Several bridges to Manhattan are free to drive across, despite the multitude of mass transit options. (As a double insult, drivers share the Manhattan and Williamsburg Bridges with subway riders that are charged $2.25 for the privilege of crossing the East River the same way.) The Verrazano Bridge, on the other hand, has the highest toll in the region and is only served by a small number of bus routes.

Why The Verrazano Toll Is Ridiculously Unfair To Bay Ridge, Part II

By on July 3, 2012  Politics
Jul 032012
 

Do not get me going on the Verrazano Bridge toll. I could rant and rave about this subject for days.

When we visited the subject last week, Governor Andrew Cuomo had just announced a deal with the Port Authority to offer a deep discount on its three New Jersey-Staten Island bridges to Staten Island residents. To which Councilman Gentile and I responded, “C’mon, really? Don’t you think Brooklyn residents that use these bridges and the Verrazano deserve the same break?” (I’m paraphrasing both myself and the Councilman.)

Since then, in a press release, State Senate candidate Andrew Gounardes jumped on what he termed as Marty Golden’s political failure caused by absenteeism. And Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis (R-Staten Island) announced that the Port Authority would extend the discount deal to Brooklyn residents for the Goethals Bridge, Bayonne Bridge, and the awesomely-named Outerbridge Crossing, as reported by Laura Vladimirova of the Bensonhurst Bean.

But there remains no word from the MTA on an extension of the discount to Brooklyn residents on the Verrazano.

As someone who used to go to Staten Island every Sunday, this really makes my blood boil. I’m sure those of you who use the Verrazano to get to work feel that angry times…

Well…

That angry times five, I guess.

The Staten Island toll discount: Port Authority joins MTA in sticking it to Brooklyn

By on June 28, 2012  Traffic & Transit
Jun 282012
 

If this is your view of the Verrazano Bridge, you pay almost twice as much as a Staten Island resident who can’t even see it from their house. (Photo credit: Brian Hedden/Bay Ridge Odyssey)

Staten Island residents will get a 60% discount on tolls paid to use the three Port Authority bridges linking Staten Island with New Jersey, as reported by Judy Randall of the Staten Island Advance last Sunday.

Because, you know, Staten Islanders are the only ones who are inconvenienced by bridge tolls.

Jerks.

We’ve complained on several occasions that the 40% discount on the Verrazano Bridge applies only to Staten Island residents, no matter where on that island they live, yet Brooklynites – even Bay Ridgers who live in the shadow of the bridge – must pay full freight.

With the new deal announced by Governor Andrew Cuomo and the Port Authority, Councilman Vincent Gentile has joined the Bay Ridge Odyssey in saying, Seriously, dude? Continue reading »