As downstate New York prepares for hearings on the MTA’s decision to increase fares, the MTA plan for bridge and tunnel tolls has largely escaped notice. In part, that is because the increase is relatively small. Where the MTA boosted its bridge toll rates 16% in 1996, this year’s proposed 50-cent increase will be less in percentage terms (14%). On the other hand, the NYC Transit base fare increased 20% in 1996, and will rise 33% if it goes to $2 this year.

Even more notable, however, is what is not in the MTA proposal — any plan to offer drivers off-peak toll discounts, as several major metropolitan toll authorities have already done.

When the NJ Turnpike Authority increased toll rates in 2000, it raised only the prices for passenger cars paying cash tolls or driving with an E-ZPass in rush hour. E-ZPass-equipped motorists traveling during non-peak times saw no increase. The Port Authority followed suit with its 2001 toll hike at its Hudson River and Staten Island crossings. Prices went up for all cash tolls and for E-ZPass users during peak traffic periods, but remained at $4 for drivers traveling off-peak with an E-ZPass.

Thus, for the MTA to increase rush hour bridge and tunnel tolls this year while leaving off-peak rates where they are would not be especially innovative ¯ it would simply continue implementation of a policy that has taken root and been accepted as sensible throughout the metropolitan area.

The Turnpike Authority reports that traffic growth during rush hours has flattened out since it adopted the time-of-day-based toll schedule. Early PA reports also suggested that relatively lower prices attracted some motorists to off-peak driving times.

It is not clear why the MTA is side-stepping the issue. For years, the agency has told advocacy groups, policy experts and other agencies it is interested in and investigating the potential of variable toll pricing, but there has never been a shred of evidence that this is true. The agency has not answered any direct questions about the toll increase it now proposes posed by the Tri-State Campaign. So little information is available, for instance, that it is impossible to tell what the MTA proposes as its discount for E-ZPass users after tolls rise sometime this year.

Several years ago, MTA officials objected that variable pricing at its crossings could not work so long as the city-owned East River bridges charged no toll at all. Of course, free bridges will always compete with toll crossings. But why would a toll of $4.50 or $5.00 during rush hour lead to more diversion to free bridges than a $4.50 toll in effect at all times of day? If anything, off-peak toll discounts — especially if they represent marginal or no increase over today’s rate — will result in a smaller diversion during off-peak times. And of course, free bridges do not compete with crossings like the Verrazano Narrows, Whitestone and Throgs Neck bridges. Moreover, a stated goal of the Bloomberg administration is to implement tolls on the now-free bridges.

Off-peak toll discounts and less congestion at rush hour would Gov. Pataki and the MTA something to offer to their driving customers. As it is, the MTA’s obsolete flat toll hike offers them nothing but higher out-of-pocket costs.

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