I've used the car pool thing for years - you can add it to your ez pass program / account for free. It's a discounted rate during both peak and off-peak hours.

BTW, if you're pregnant, that counts as TWO!!! Tested and verified personally!

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How is it possible I've never heard this "car pool" stuff before? Is is only during peak?

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I have avoided that bridge like a plaque as well since the last toll hike. I only took it twice within the past 3 years and that was the free side SI->BK to go to JFK. Maybe there are lot more people who are avoiding it and revenue is down...

One tip for NJ drivers. Sign up for car-pool EZpass plan. If you have 3 or more people in the car then NJ crossings into NY are $5(it was $2 when cash toll was $8). They have been raising that un-proportionally to cash rates. You have to use the cash lane and tell the agent "car pool". If tunnel is backed up ezpass lanes are not moving anyway.

As a staten islander most of my life (now I live in JC), I vowed many years ago to avoid that bridge like the plague. My parents moved to SI from Brooklyn in 1965 (when the bridge was completed) and the toll was supposed to be eliminated completely once it was "paid off". That's hysterical. Another example of governemnt not representing the best interest its consitituents

N.Y. / REGION

For years, and especially in election years, New York City?s political elite has cast an occasional eye toward the transit-deficient hinterland of Staten Island.

In the throes of a re-election campaign in 1997, Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani made the Staten Island Ferry free. Last year, the Republican nominee for mayor, Joseph J. Lhota, called for the extension of the subway system to the borough ? a position he never volunteered during his time as chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Now Staten Island seems to have attracted the attention of Albany. Citing a unique bond between borough and bridge, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said at a news conference on Thursday that he had reached an agreement with the Legislature to reduce the one-way toll on the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge to $5.50 for Staten Island residents enrolled in an E-ZPass discount program.

The span connects Brooklyn and Staten Island, and the current rate is $6 for those who use the crossing at least three times a month. The E-ZPass rate for nonresidents is $10.66, and the cash rate is $15. Tolls are collected only on the trip to Staten Island.

?The Verrazano is not just another bridge,? Mr. Cuomo said at the news conference, which included Republican lawmakers. ?When you toll that bridge,? he added, ?you toll the main artery? of the borough. The governor is up for re-election in November, though state officials said the toll plans had been in the works for a year. Many Staten Island officeholders have been asking for toll relief for far longer.

Local lawmakers hailed the plan as a much-needed break for drivers, and Mayor Bill de Blasio?s office posted a supportive Twitter message. A discount of 20 percent will also be offered for some commercial trucks that make more than 10 trips a month.

But some critics said the change, expected to take effect in April, was arriving at a time when the transportation authority could ill afford to lose revenue. The proposal will cost $7 million from the state budget and $7 million from the transportation authority.

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