Plan To Eliminate Tollbooths Could Ease City-Bound Traffic

Cameras could soon replace tollbooths on the bridges and tunnels connecting New York and New Jersey. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey yesterday announced plans to phase out cash payments at its six crossings between the two states in favor of bills sent by mail to the millions of drivers who enter Manhattan from New Jersey every day.

The plan, which is expected to reduce traffic bottlenecks on the highways leading into the city, would complement Mayor Bloomberg's proposal to charge drivers a fee to use the city's most crowded streets, Port officials said. The Port Authority would use the same camera technology to charge drivers that the city is planning to use if it implements congestion pricing.

A feasibility study for the cashless toll payments is expected to begin within weeks. Replacing the tollbooths would likely take at least five years.

The bi-state agency may also seek to implement "dynamic pricing," a system of varying Manhattan entrance fees depending on the level of congestion within the city, the executive director of the Port Authority, Anthony Shorris, announced yesterday at a breakfast hosted by the Association for a Better New York.