Deadbeat motorists brazenly breezed through city bridges and tunnels a staggering 1.7 million times last year — driving away millions in lost revenue, agency officials say.

The Port Authority, which oversees six New York-New Jersey crossings, said the scofflaws skipped out on paying $17.7 million in tolls.

But the bistate agency aggressively recouped $10.5 million from violators, leaving an outstanding balance of $7.2 million in unpaid tolls and fines.

Still, the agency earned $962.5 million from last year’s toll traffic of 121.5 million.

“People who don’t have an E-ZPass just don’t want to pay, so they go through,” said a PA spokesman. “The majority of our violators are not E-ZPass customers.”

He attributed the high number of scofflaws to the lack of automatic gates to stop drivers on its four bridges and two Hudson River tunnels.

In 2009, the agency stopped 118,000 drivers at the toll gates, including some E-ZPass drivers with negative balances in their accounts who couldn’t pay in cash.

The deadbeats were given a “deferred toll slip” to mail back with the fare and a $2 service charge.

The MTA recouped $569,00 in deferred toll payments, while $214,700 remains unpaid.

“We don’t have as many problems as the other agencies because we have gates,” said MTA spokeswoman Judie Glave.

(Source: NY Post)