Car and truck traffic is crossing the Hudson River and Arthur Kill in record volumes for the third straight year, according to the Port Authority. 108 million cars and 10 million trucks used the PA bridge and tunnel facilities last year.

A Port Authority official cited by the Star Ledger this week postulated that EZ-Pass' greater toll plaza through-put may be responsible for some of the growth. Last fall, the Star Ledger and the NYC DOT reported that better flow on the NJ side of the George Washington Bridge had caused some of the traffic jams to migrate to highway interchanges on the Manhattan side of the bridge (see MTR #143).

The policy of opening the way for more cars to enter the region's jammed core is built on several contradictions. Most fundamental is that the more traffic the PA moves, the better off it is budget-wise. Second is that EZ-Pass is only being used as a (discounted) traffic flow enhancer, rather than as a traffic management device. The region pays for this "drive-thru" mentality in numerous ways, including high roadway and pedestrian death tolls and bad policies to speed traffic in central business districts at the expense of pedestrians.

Our transportation agencies complain that they'll be politically fried if they touch the "third rail" of incentive pricing and propose using EZ-Pass to impose higher peak period tolls to control congestion.

Our impressions from traveling and talking throughout the region is that much of the public, and some elected officials, are a lot more willing to try measures that hold potential for traffic relief than agencies believe.

Consider recent editorial comment:

NY Times, June, 1996: Bridge and tunnel officials need to exploit the new technology in creative ways. For years, drivers who bought tokens in advance received a discount. But the discount has never been used in a way that encourages more efficient traffic patterns...What is needed are intelligent pricing variations to encourage more usage at non-peak hours.

Daily News, December, 1997: The problem with [Mayor Giuliani's off-peak truck toll discount proposal] is that it does not make truckers pay a premium during rush hour.

Star Ledger, August, 1996: The idea [peak toll premiums] might be worth a try if employers allow for flexible work hours or staggered shifts.

And since when are the agencies so thin-skinned? They offer ideas that create public outcry all the time. The Port Authority won no popularity contests with its Goethals Bridge twin proposal. Did NYS DOT gain friends with its Gowanus reconstruction planning debacle? Is the MTA getting rave reviews from the sardines on its Lexington Avenue and Queens Boulevard trains? Perhaps familiar criticisms are somehow easier to live with and shrug off than new criticisms.

The only congestion pricing policy in effect in the region today may already be showing results. Though the data has not been analyzed, the Tappan Zee Bridge, where trucks now pay a peak period toll premium, was the only crossing between the Goethals and the Beacon-Newburgh bridges to show fewer truck crossings in 1997 than in 1996.

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