Skip to main content

New Yorkers split on congestion pricing, tolling plan

In a recently published Quinnipiac University poll, 49 per cent of voters on New York opposed a proposal to toll the East River bridges and at the same time reduce tolls on the ‘outer borough’ bridges between the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island and use the money for mass transit. Forty-four per cent backed the plan. Opposition to just setting tolls on the free East River bridges remains strong at 69 per cent, with just 27 per cent in favour, the independent poll finds. There is no group that co
May 18, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
In a recently published Quinnipiac University poll, 49 per cent of voters on New York opposed a proposal to toll the East River bridges and at the same time reduce tolls on the ‘outer borough’ bridges between the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island and use the money for mass transit. Forty-four per cent backed the plan.

Opposition to just setting tolls on the free East River bridges remains strong at 69 per cent, with just 27 per cent in favour, the independent poll finds. There is no group that comes close to 50 per cent support for tolls, except Staten Island at 43 per cent.

"East River bridge tolls? New Yorkers have been saying no for years," said Quinnipiac University Poll assistant director Maurice Carroll. "But the people pushing the idea this time are savvy. They'd marry new tolls to toll reductions elsewhere. And they tie it to mass transit improvements. In response to that idea, the level of opposition shrinks.

"Whatever their views on what should be done, 88 per cent of voters agree that traffic congestion is a serious problem."

Related Content

  • March 19, 2013
    Cubic to deliver hardware system for MTA Bus Time
    Cubic Transportation Systems has been awarded a contract worth almost US$27 million from the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority to build and integrate the bus hardware system for MTA Bus Time, the authority's customer information system for bus location and arrival times that will be accessible to passengers using an internet browser-based map, a mobile phone-based application and a text message-based service. As part of the bus hardware system, Cubic will deliver its new mobile validator that w
  • February 2, 2012
    Need for balance on UK speed enforcement funding cuts
    Trevor Ellis, Chairman of the ITS UK Enforcement Interest Group, considers the implications of the UK Government's decision to withdraw funding for road safety camera partnerships
  • April 20, 2012
    The case for tolling the Interstates
    Speaking at an event organised by the IBTTA last week to an audience of federal and state transportation officials, policy experts, financial analysts, and representatives from engineering firms, technology companies, and transportation facility operators, Ed Regan of Wilbur Smith Associates articulated a clear case for giving states flexibility to toll existing interstate highways.
  • September 16, 2016
    Highway congestion drives support for tolls
    Increasing congestion on US highways and roads is driving almost three in four (72 per cent) Americans to support using tolls to pay for critical or needed transportation infrastructure projects if there are insufficient funds from other sources, according to the latest America THINKS national public opinion survey by HNTB Corporation. The survey polled a random nationwide sample of 1,022 Americans between 21 and 28 July 2016.