There is anger and calls for investigations after a lack of toll collectors on the Outerbridge Crossing at the end of the Easter holiday weekend.
Apparently only one toll collector was on duty for much of the day on Sunday, causing massive backups entering New York City from New Jersey.
Some people have said getting across the bridge took as much as three hours.
City Council Member James Oddo (R-Staten Island/Brooklyn) said: “This is beyond ridiculous.”
People say they were stuck in hours-long delays. It didn’t help to have an E-Z Pass transponder because the back-ups blocked people from getting to the cash-less toll lanes.
Oddo and other elected officials want to grill Christoper Ward, the executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
“I want answers as to why this happened and what they will do to avoid this on Mothers Day and other holidays,” Oddo said.
Traffic was backed up up all the way down to exit 127 on the Garden State Parkway.
Oddo said that if there are not enough toll collectors, the bridges should be completely electronic for toll collection. He also suggested that, on holidays, making passage free.
Oddo wants drivers who were stuck in the mess to e-mail him at [email protected] so he can share the complaints with the Port Authority.
In response to Staten Island Advance inquiries, the Port Authority issued a statement: “The Port Authority apologizes for the disruptions travelers faced. We value our customers and have immediately begun working to address the cause of [Sunday’s] backup.”
Port Authority Chairman Christopher Ward has agreed to attend a public meeting with City Council members to answer their questions and address the public’s concerns.
“We made a point yesterday that the public has to be a part of any meeting we hold with the Port Authority on this issue,” Oddo said. “They suffered on Sunday and also on other days where there has only been a single toll collector working. To his credit, Executive Director Ward agreed to participate. I urge those who were affected to come to Monday’s meeting to tell the Port Authority how Sunday’s debacle affected them.”
These are the meeting details:
Monday, May 2, 2011, 7:00 p.m.
St. George Theatre
35 Hyatt Street
Staten Island, N.Y.
(Source: MyFoxNY)
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6 Responses
Toll collectors and garbage collectors seem to have more than one thing in common.
Just an interesting note – last night, motza’ay Yom Tov, somewhere around 11:40 pm or so (give or take ten, twenty minutes), traffic on the way from NJ to NY by the Outerbridge crossing was stopped! Boruch HaShem, after a few minutes, it cleared, but we weren’t moving for those few minutes.
Maybe the toll collectors were busy selling back chometz?!
Why couldn’t people have just used EZPass, or the Goethals Bridge?
I saw the mess and took the Bayonne Bridge. Worked out well.
#3-Did you read the article?
#3,
It didn’t help to have EZPass, which we did. Traffic was too backed up to even reach the toll plaza. We sat there for over an hour before we finally gave up and managed to get out at the last exit in NJ and head back to Philadelphia.
Incidentally, there had been signs on the NJ Turnpike announcing major delays at the Goethals, which is why we headed for the Outerbridge in the first place.