Six months after the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey raised prices at its six bridges and tunnels, the numbers are in: about a half million fewer drivers per month are using them. That’s a 5 percent decrease overall.
The lower numbers, however, will not be a problem for the authority’s bottom line. Toll revenues are up 31 percent since the hikes kicked in this past September. Between October 2011 and March 2012, the tolls took in a whopping $602.7 million, compared to $459 million raised between October 2010 and March 2011.
The drop in vehicle usage is to be expected, especially given that four months after prices went up at the crossings, tolls jumped by 50 percent on the New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway. That’s a double toll hike whammy on Jersey drivers making a typical trip to Manhattan or Staten Island.
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3 Responses
Let’s see if the great PA beauracracy can connect the dots and figure out that they will eventually lose revenue instead of gaining & have to raise tolls once again which will cause more drivers to abandon the PA crossings until only the extremely rich people will be able to afford crossing the hudson river in a private car.
YWN readers would be enlightened to know what were the expenses and where the profit of the tolls went! who oversees their decision?
2. We ‘know’ they are helping pay for the new WTC.