Bridge Tolls: It's About Time
A Talk at the Puffin Room Town Meeting, April 24, 2002
By Charles Komanoff
(a version of this talk was published in The Brooklyn
Papers as an op-ed, May 20, 2002)
Try a thought-experiment with me.
A car-owner in Brooklyn -- say, from Bay Ridge --
decides one day to drive into Manhattan via the Brooklyn
Bridge. At half-a-dozen or more places along the way, she
will meet up with another traffic stream: where the Gowanus
merges with the Belt, where the Prospect merges with the
Gowanus, where the Gowanus joins the BQE, at the BQE
exit for the Brooklyn Bridge, etc.
At each merge point, she beats another car to a hole in the
traffic stream. That other car, and dozens others behind it --
even hundreds in some instances -- are delayed by some
seconds. Each delay may seem insignificant, but add up all
the delays her car causes the other drivers at all the merge
points on her trip, and you'll find that her choice to drive has
cost all the other drivers a huge amount of time -- probably
an hour combined.
Of course, it's not just our friend from Bay Ridge slowing
down other drivers -- the delays are reciprocal. Every driver
slows down every other driver. Sure, no one driver is
delaying any other by more than a few seconds. But each
driver's choice to drive -- to save perhaps 20 minutes for
him or herself rather than carpooling or taking transit --
costs all the other drivers a good 60 minutes.
The German writer Wolfgang Sachs says it quite
elegantly:
"Once a certain traffic density is surpassed, every driver
contributes involuntarily to a slowing of traffic. The time
that the individual driver steals from all the others by
slowing them down is greater many times over than the time
he or she might have hoped to gain by taking the car."
That's the situation on New York City's roads and
bridges, and it fails everyone. Even if cars didn't pollute,
didn't kill, didn't destroy the climate, and didn't keep us
dependent on Middle Eastern oil, the present system of free
East River bridges would be a disaster for the drivers, just
from all the wasted time.
The solution is tolls. Tolls will weed out a fraction of the
traffic and eliminate a big share of the congestion. Based on
the Port Authority's experience with variable tolls on its
Hudson River crossings, taking away just 10% of the traffic
can eliminate 50% of the time being lost on the bridges and
the connecting roadways.
So the smart thing is to charge the toll rate that will
dissuade one in ten drivers from driving. That's all, just 1 in
10.
Almost everyone will benefit -- though they may not
realize it at first. Would a trucking firm pay a 5 buck toll to
be able to deliver its cargo a half-hour or hour faster? You
bet they would. How about a contractor? Repair and install
guys bill at $75 an hour, so they'll gladly pay $5 to cut an
hour off the trip. Cabbies? Less traffic will mean more miles
and more fares. Someone driving to a doctor's appointment
in Manhattan? When you or a family member need medical
attention, you'll pay to avoid sitting in mid-span on the
bridge for 45 minutes.
What about that 1 driver in 10 who leaves the car at
home? If experience in other cities is a guide, the
"designated non-drivers" will change from day to day. Most
drivers will share in the behavior change on a rotating basis.
Sure, the super-rich will continue to drive, but now they'll
pay for it.
Bridge tolls were always a good idea with a fatal flaw:
where could the toll plazas go without making a traffic and
pollution disaster? Technology has solved that problem. On
highways in Toronto, Texas, California, and dozens of other
places in the U.S. and elsewhere, card-readers mounted on
overhead gantries allow tolls to be paid "at speed."
Here in New York, no one will be forced to use E-Z Pass.
"Toll cards," like phone cards, will let drivers pay
electronically but anonymously. Non-card-holders will be
able to pay cash at the crossings that already have toll plazas:
the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, the Queens Midtown Tunnel,
and the Triborough Bridge.
Bridge tolls won't violate anyone's rights. After all of the
bridges have been tolled, we'll still be able to drive wherever
and whenever we want. We'll simply pay for the use we
make of a costly facility. And the huge time savings will
make just about everybody -- drivers, non-drivers, truck
drivers, taxi drivers, bus riders and bike riders -- better off.
(And, since this is New York, let's mention that bridge
tolls will make every ethnic group, every income level, every
sector of society better off -- except perhaps Exxon
shareholders, Saudi princes and folks who enjoy being stuck
in traffic.)
The point is that present volumes of traffic are so
excessive that it's in drivers' own interest to pay more so
traffic can decline. Tolls will be so effective in cutting traffic
delays that they would make sense even if all the toll money
were dumped into the river.
Of course the money will actually go into the city's
coffers to help pay for vital services. Tolling the four East
River Bridges at the same levels charged for the Midtown
Tunnel will generate a billion dollars a year. Add in the time
savings, the cleaner air, the safer and quieter streets, and the
benefit to the city from tolls climbs to several billion.
Imagine that tomorrow Congress and the President
increased federal 9/11 aid to New York City by several
billion dollars a year. That gain, welcome as it would be, is
no greater than the windfall we can reap by putting tolls on
the East River bridges.
If Sen. Schumer, or Sen. Clinton, or your state or local
representative, were the person who secured those billions
from Washington, we would give them a ticker-tape parade
and make them Legislator for Life. Yet none of them are
leading the charge for bridge tolls.
But let's not point fingers. Bridge tolls are a bit novel, and
elected officials shy away from anything different. That's
why forums like this are valuable, they help get our
representatives up to speed.
We citizens must make it clear that we expect leadership
on the toll issue. Leadership that will emphasize the many
benefits rather than harp on the few obstacles. Leadership
that will transcend the usual dead-end of "constituency
politics." Leadership that will seize this extraordinary
opportunity to benefit all New Yorkers here and now.
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