Cabbie Mushtaq Ahmad said putting tolls on the Brooklyn, Williamsburg, Manhattan and Queensboro bridges would trigger around-the-clock gridlock.

“It’s not going to work,” Ahmad fumed. “Traffic will be so backed up.”

Abner Rabiner, another Brooklyn Bridge regular, added, “The reason people take the Brooklyn Bridge is to avoid a toll.” [emphasis added]

First, Ahmad and all the others who are envisioning toll booths need to told loud and clear that this is a cashless, no toll-booth system.

Second, as evidenced by Rabiner’s comment, the traffic-beleagured communities near the free bridges have so much to gain from the east river bridge toll proposal. We need to get them mobilized to support this plan.

Let the sniveling lies begin!

Here’s one from today’s AMNY:

“They’re coming up with the same old tired solutions that the public has rejected already,” said City Councilman Tony Avella (D-Bayside).

Sorry Councilmember Avella, but a majority of voters in each borough supports charging drivers to drive in Manhattan “if the money were used to improve mass transit”.

(See question 16. at http://www.quinnipiac.edu/x1302.xml?ReleaseID=1132 [poll from 1/2008].)