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Yeah, I've always found the most annoying aspect of the system is they don't tell you what you've just paid. One assumes that the Turnpike Authority likes it that way. At a bridge you've got some idea of the cost but at a Tpk booth they make it pain free, till you get the statement!

Wait a second, EZPass only costs $4/$5 per entry into holland tunnel? I was not aware of this, and I have EZPass. Saves me a bundle, I guess.

PA official suggests end to toll booths

Thursday, May 17, 2007
NEWHOUSE NEWS SERVICE

The Holland Tunnel and George Washington Bridge would no longer feature toll booths under a scenario suggested this week by a senior Port Authority official.

In a speech Tuesday to a New York City business group, Anthony Shorris, executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, called for a study of a possibility of an all-electronic toll collection system at the agency's six bridges and tunnels between the city and New Jersey.

Exactly how the cashless toll system would work would be determined in the study. But basically, it could work similarly to the high-speed E-ZPass lanes.

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I thought of that too, but if you combine that with dynamic fare tolls it should spread out the congestion. A lot of people would wait 1/2-1hr if it saved them $5/day.

This plan will be disastrous for we with E-ZPass, used to bypassing all the clowns who inexplicably don't. When they're forced to use it we won't have our shortcut.

I'll sign on to this plan if they make the current E-ZPass lanes 24/7 HOV.

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What a irrelevant statistic when applied to a system that backs up to the toll booths much of the time, so you pass the booth at 1 mph.

Ideally they would get a bill in the mail based on their license plate.

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"Joad, you gotta have $50 dollars or you are gonna be turned back.

Might as well be $500 dollars..."
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Hey Newport's Banner slogan "If you lived here, you would be home already" could make a nice Walker Evens-esque Photo op -- back drop..

one question, how are they going to deal w/ people that are out of towners? are they going to link all eazy pass systems thruout the country? what if you're driving up from bumble f kentucky and don't have eazy pass, will your final destination be our lovely downtown jersey city, b/c you can't cross the border?
will all rental cars now all come equiped w/ ez pass?

Agency Might Replace Bridge and Tunnel Tollbooths With Cashless System

The New York Times
By KEN BELSON
Published: May 16, 2007

The backup at the tunnel ? a phrase as familiar to New York and New Jersey drivers as rubbernecking delays ? will never go away. But it may be used less frequently if the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has its way.

The head of the agency, which operates six tunnels and bridges that empty more than 125 million cars, trucks and buses into New York City each year, said yesterday that in a few weeks it would consider financing a study to look at removing tollbooths and at the impact that would have on traffic and pricing.

By going cashless and asking all drivers to use an electronic E-ZPass, said Anthony E. Shorris, the executive director of the Port Authority, the agency hopes to introduce what it calls ?dynamic pricing,? charging higher tolls during peak periods and lower tolls when traffic is lighter.

Mr. Shorris also said that going entirely electronic would improve air quality because cars and trucks would spend less time idling at toll barriers.

?This would mark the end of the tollbooth as we know it, replacing these brick-and-mortar symbols of the 20th century with the digital imaging technology of the 21st century,? Mr. Shorris said in a speech to a civic group. ?Couple cashless tolling with real-time traffic management systems and we?ll no longer rely on 1010 WINS to tell people delay times and the best routes.?

As a rule of thumb, a toll collector can take cash from up to 400 vehicles an hour, while an E-ZPass lane with drivers traveling under 25 miles an hour can handle about 1,400, said Scott E. LeVine, a transportation planner at the consulting firm Edwards & Kelcey.

As Mr. LeVine put it: ?Manned tollbooths are kind of dinosaurs. The database and camera technology available today make them obsolete.?

First, the Port Authority board has to approve a study to determine how to remove the current booths and install electronic equipment to track cars and trucks, and how traffic flow would be improved.

In addition, the authority has to consider what to do with the 185 unionized workers who now collect tolls at the six crossings: the Holland and Lincoln Tunnels, the George Washington Bridge, the Bayonne Bridge, the Goethals Bridge and the Outerbridge Crossing. Of the 72 tollbooths at these crossings, 37 are staffed at some point during the day.

The proposal dovetails with a plan introduced last month by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg to charge drivers more to enter the city.

Under that plan, known as congestion pricing, the city would charge $8 for cars and $21 for commercial trucks that enter Manhattan below 86th Street from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays, or $4 for drivers within that part of Manhattan, with several exceptions.

The program is modeled on a system in London that was begun in 2003 in which drivers are charged up to $20 if they travel into the city center. The program has been credited with reducing traffic by as much as 17 percent.

While Mr. Bloomberg?s proposal has met stiff opposition, the Port Authority?s plan may get a warmer reception, since drivers with E-ZPass already make up 73 percent of the 126 million annual eastbound crossings on the authority?s bridges and tunnels. That rate climbs to above 80 percent during peak hours.

The authority also uses cameras to take pictures of license plates on cars that drive through E-ZPass gates without paying. Under the proposal, all tollbooths would be removed, and more of those cameras would be installed to bill vehicles without E-ZPasses.

The authority has a limited congestion pricing plan in place now. Drivers with an E-ZPass pay $5 during peak hours, compared with $6 for those using cash. During off peak hours, E-ZPass holders pay $4 versus $6.

These discounts cost the Port Authority about $45 million in revenue not earned. In all, the authority collected $720 million in tolls last year.

On weekdays, peak hours are 6 to 9 a.m. and 4 to 7 p.m. On weekends, they are 12 to 8 p.m.

While any plan to eliminate tollbooths is months and maybe years away, many drivers interviewed yesterday before crossing the Hudson said they would not miss them as long as tolls did not rise as a result.

Lou Pelican, 37, a salesman from Matawan, N.J., gave two thumbs up when he was told about the plan.

?The traffic is bad enough without them having to make change,? Mr. Pelican said while sitting in a charcoal-colored Jeep before entering the Holland Tunnel in Manhattan.

Phone calls to a representative at Local 1400 of the Transport Workers Union, which represents toll collectors, were not returned.

But one toll taker did not seem troubled.

At the mouth of the Holland Tunnel in Jersey City, an agent with gray hair and glasses made change for $20 and reacted to the news with a shrug.

?I?m ready to retire, anyway,? she said. ?What do you think of that??

Cassi Feldman and Jonathan Miller contributed reporting.