When asked what New York City should do to balance its budget, 40 percent of New Yorkers chose placing tolls on the East River crossings, according to a Quinnipiac University poll.  Only 20 percent of respondents favored hiking subway and bus fares to bail the city out of its budget straits.

“When you take the ‘cut spending’ option away and present voters with some hard choices, the first choice is to toll the free bridges,” poll director Maurice Carroll told reporters. “The last choice is a fare hike.”  Quinnipiac University surveyed 932 registered New York City voters from July 8-15. 

In response to the poll’s findings, a Thursday Daily News editorial called again on city government to formulate a policy for tolling its East River bridges. 

A city administration source told the NY Post that Mayor Michael Bloomberg is still interested in tolls for East River bridges.  The Mayor floated the idea of placing variable tolls, with higher peak-hour fees, on the bridges in his executive budget (MTR #353). 

Despite Bloomberg’s interest, however, the city has yet to undertake a serious examination of the issue as a revenue generating measure or as a congestion mitigation strategy.  Instead, the city only addresses the idea in haphazard comments by the mayor – including recent comments that East River tolls may be politically feasible if applied only to non-city residents.

Exempting city drivers would raise little extra revenue and would fail to put a dent in choking rush-hour congestion. According to NYMTC county-to-county travel statistics (1990), three quarters of drivers crossing the East River Bridges into Manhattan originate in Brooklyn or Queens while only one fourth come from Long Island.  According to the NYMTC data, passengers driving into Manhattan for work purposes total 136,961 drivers daily and break down as follows: Suffolk, 9,565 (7%); Nassau, 23,313 (17%), Brooklyn, 42,345 (31%), Queens, 61,738 (45%).  Exempting or discounting tolls for three fourths of bridge motorists would clearly eliminate much of East River bridge tolls’ value as a revenue source or travel demand management tool.

See bridgetolls.org for breaking news on East River toll issues.

Quinnipiac University Polling Institute

Bloomberg: City May Trigger Fare Hike (July 22, 2002)

MTA Should Prepare Now for Variable Tolls (July 15, 2002)

Bridge Tolls Still on Bloomberg Agenda? (July 8, 2002)

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