Tolls on the East and Harlem river bridges also need to be implemented; just because the bridges are supposedly “paid off” doesn’t mean they are free to maintain.

And I agree, the two-way tolling is brutally unfair unless both directions get credited in the scheme. No reason that the two-way tolls couldn’t be changed to one-ways – just cut out the plaza going out and double the price. You can’t have crazy distortions ruining the whole scheme.

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2008/03/police-fire-unions-come-out-ag.html

Once again, there are the political class overlords, represented here, and the executive class overlords. The rest of us don’t matter.

We just get taxes and in theory get whatever public services and space are not allocated by placard or other means.

Can someone clarify; do tolls on the TB, GWB and VNB, HHB and others alsp qualify for the offset?

If you pay $8 at the Holland Tunnel you pay nothing to CP and nothing to leave the city.

If you enter via the QMT you pay $5 toll, plus a $3 CP fee and $5 to leave via the tunnel. If the toll was $10 round-trip you’d pay no CP fee.

Reduce all tolls to their one-way equivalent before assessing CP fees. This will mean charging a $4 CP fee to those using the HT, LT or GWB and eliminate the perceived NJ benefit.

It says, “The streets are crowded and we’re going to clear them up by pricing out the users who can least afford to pay.”

That’s distasteful to most people. The name is elitist. It’s undemocratic. It’s a stick that’s only being used against the most vulnerable drivers.

Two suggestions:

1) “Mass Transit Fee” — There’s something that’s hard to oppose on any kind of class basis. We already know that people are more supportive when they’re told about how the money will go to fund mass transit. And even drivers could be pitched on the idea by saying that improved mass transit will make their drives easier, and give them increased commuting options. It’s a carrot, not a stick.

2) “Pollution Fee” or “Fresh Air Fee” — Who can oppose fresh air? Even the lowest income drivers have to acknowledge that their cars produce exhaust. You still give the money to mass transit, but you pitch it as a pollution measure that’s going to help poor kids avoid asthma, not as a penalty to weed out the lowest income drivers. Again, a carrot and not a stick.

This whole thing should be rebranded. (Not that I want it to be — I think the name’s fine the way it is.)

The PA toll of $8 is in fact $4 each way, but paid once unlike the QMT, Triboro and other MTA crossings which have two-way tolling.

On this basis those crossing the Hudson and paying an $8 toll should only get a $4 credit toward the CP fee and have to pay an additional $4.