Despite the MTA’s reluctance to institute non-stop tolling on its bridges and tunnels, the region may still become a national non-stop toll capital.

The Port Authority opened it second 25mph toll lane at the Palisades Interstate Parkway entrance to the George Washington Bridge on January 4^th. Last summer, the Port Authority opened its first 25mph toll lane at the Outerbridge Crossing. According to an agency press release, the rest of Port Authority bridges expected to implement these medium-speed EZ Pass only lanes "through 2004."

New Jersey’s second high-speed toll plaza is expected to open within the next few weeks at the Pascack Valley Toll Plaza (until recently the Hillsdale Plaza) on the Garden State Parkway. Although the lanes — which allow cars to drive through at highway speed — are already open, the camera enforcement system there is not quite ready to go. Exit 6 on the NJ Turnpike already has a highway-speed system. Turnpike Exits 18W will also unveil open-road toll lanes in the near future. Turnpike Exits 1, 18E, and Parkway toll plazas at Toms River, Raritan South and Asbury Park and the Pleasantville plaza on the Atlantic City Expressway are also scheduled to receive the new system within the next few years.

Last August, Governor Pataki also directed the NYS Thruway to develop high speed EZPass systems, though the timing for medium-speed 20mph EZPass tolling is already available in left lanes at the New Rochelle and Tappan Zee barriers. A Pataki press release states that the 20mph lanes can process 300-400 more vehicles per hour than the 5mph roll-through plazas.

In upstate New York, the NYS Thruway Authority is considering the replacement of traditional plazas on Exits 23, 24, 25 in Albany and Schenectady, though the design speed for these projects is unknown as yet. The Thruway told the Times Union that high speed tolls will reduce congestion in these urban areas.

Meanwhile, E-ZPass, which just celebrated its 10 year anniversary here in New York, is now available on the entire Pennsylvania Turnpike, and on Turnpikes and state roads in Massachusetts, West Virginia, Delaware, and Maryland. 

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