The Manhattan end of the Queensboro Bridge.
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A cadre of Brooklyn elected officials are calling on the MTA to ensure “equalized tolling” on all crossings into Manhattan under its upcoming congestion pricing plan in the hopes of preventing “bridge shopping” for the cheapest travel.
Sixteen Brooklyn pols repping communities on the East River sent a letter last week making the call to the Traffic Mobility Review Board (TMRB), the six-member internal MTA group that will determine the complex array of rules governing the tolling scheme for entering Manhattan south of 60th Street.
The board is set to meet for the first time on Wednesday, and congestion pricing is scheduled to be implemented by the middle of next year.
Crossings into Manhattan are controlled by a bevy of separate agencies, such as the MTA, the Port Authority, and the New York City Department of Transportation (DOT), and some are already tolled while others are free to cross.
Taking the MTA-controlled Hugh L. Carey Tunnel from Brooklyn to Manhattan, for instance, currently costs $6.55 with E-Z Pass and $10.17 by mail — rates set to be hiked later this year — but the DOT-controlled Brooklyn Bridge nearby is free to cross in an automobile. The pols worry that if the levies aren’t equalized in some manner, car commuters and truckers could disproportionately choose to take the cheaper Brooklyn Bridge.
“We write to express our strong support for equalized tolling to ensure that we are equitably distributing drivers across the various passages into Manhattan,” the elected officials wrote. “No one community should disproportionately bear the burden of the cars and trucks passing through their neighborhood.”
The letter was signed by Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso; Congress Members Dan Goldman and Nydia Velázquez; State Senators Kristen Gonzalez, Andrew Gounardes, and Julia Salazar; Assemblymembers Jo Anne Simon, Robert Carroll, Phara Souffrant…
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