Tolls are going cashless between New York and New Jersey
Drivers crossing the Hudson River from New Jersey to New York won’t need — and won’t be able to use — cash to pay their tolls in a few years.
The Port Authority board approved plans Thursday to invest $240 million to eliminate tollbooths and modify roadways at the George Washington Bridge and the Holland and Lincoln tunnels.
Most drivers will be billed automatically through their E-ZPass tags. Those who don’t have E-ZPass will be billed by mail, after a camera has taken a picture of the vehicle’s license plate.
The changes, expected to be operational in 2021, should reduce drivers’ carbon footprint, save time and reduce accidents, according to officials at the Port Authority board meeting.
Kevin J. O’Toole, the agency’s chairman, estimated that cashless tolls would reduce 210,000 driving hours and 2,800 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide per year, and result in regional fuel savings of 330,000 gallons.
“That seems like a pretty huge reduction of the footprint,” O’Toole said.
Officials expect cashless tolls will also reduce accidents. Diannae Ehler, the agency’s director of Tunnels, Bridges and Terminals, said there are 1,200 accidents per year at these crossings. Cashless tolls would reduce accidents by 75 percent, Ehler estimated.
“Our customers are inconvenienced by having to sit that additional time” after an accident, Ehler said. “We have both toll and bridge agents who are involved in having to deal with the accidents, as well as our police officers …[and] emergency first responders.”
Cashless tolls have displaced jobs for more than 1,200 toll workers along the New York State Thruway, the New York Times reported. But Ehler said the plan will add 2,200 job years and $166.4 million in wages, by expanding the E-ZPass Customer Service Center for tolls by mail, along with staff needed to support enforcement.
