Res 0414-2018

By Council Members Chin and Brannan Whereas, The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge is a vital link between Staten Island and Brooklyn, used by nearly 200,000 vehicles per day; and Whereas, In 1986, federal legislation forced the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) to collect Verrazano tolls only from Staten Island-bound vehicles; and Whereas, Therefore, while the rest of the city's MTA-operated bridges and tunnels have one-way tolls collected in both directions, at the Verrazano the full round-trip toll is collected from westbound travelers; and Whereas, At the time it was enacted, the rationale for this change was to decrease congestion and pollution caused by traffic backing up in Staten Island as eastbound vehicles lined up at the toll plaza to pay the toll; and Whereas, Those concerns are now largely moot because cashless open-road tolling was introduced at the Verrazano in July 2017, so drivers no longer slow down to pay tolls at tollbooths; and Whereas, Under the current system, drivers, especially those travelling between New Jersey and points in Brooklyn, Queens, and Long Island, can significantly minimize the amount of tolls they pay by entering the city via Staten Island and crossing the Verrazano and then leaving via the free East River bridges, crossing Manhattan, and using the Hudson River crossings, which are only tolled in the eastbound direction; and Whereas, This incentive to use inefficient routes costs the MTA much-needed toll revenue that could be used to support the region's mass transit system and has been blamed for exacerbating congestion problems in areas such as Canal Street in Lower Manhattan; now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the Council of the City of New York calls upon the United States Congress to pass, and the President to sign, legislation allowing two-way tolling on the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. LS# 4807 1/12/2018 JM