Just returned from a road trip from NY to Virginia Beach and back. It’s amazing that there are EZ PASS lanes in Delaware and Maryland where you can proceed to drive through and pay the toll at 65 mph! Some toll plazas are 45, some are 35. Obviously safety is an issue and you can’t design every toll plaza so traffic can go through at those speeds. But the Port Authority of NY/NJ needs to start studying how other states create efficiencies in their toll plazas and actually create better designs.

How about having a one way toll like the Verranzano and Geo. Washington Bridges? Why is there a need for so many tolls anyway? These bridges paid for themselves years ago. Now all the motorists are doing is paying for salaries of bridge and tunnel employees and administrators and all their perks and company cars. The port authority has long outlived it’s usefulness. It should be disbanded as it serves no useful purpose.

It would be cheaper to hire a contractor to paint the bridge and repave the roadway than have the port authority do it. They certainly don’t put the job out to bid. They surely hire their cronies to get top dollar to maintain the bridges.

trust me i grew up in the city i have sat in plenty of traffic before, but this was absolutely ridiculous to have this happen on a holiday especially. a trip that should have taken us an hour, took us almost 5. we missed easter with our family. i don’t care what anyone says, there is NO reason why this should have happened. both bridges had the same issue. this was obviously planned to save money.

so let’s just raise taxes and have the fine new yorkers to pay for the extra man power to take care of these sitiuations until a more viable plan can make it easier for you and your family to get to mother-in-laws house whom you hate anyway. She is only going to reinforce your loser qualities that you have anyway.

@ brown, maybe you should get a job at the booths and don’t forget to bring a dictionary because you cannot speak eloqently. Stop complaining brown and don’t something about it. Hey maybe you should run for a city position and do something about the way the city is run. Don’t you think? or do you? Stop talking about and do something, put down the beer and New York City pretzel, get off your fat or well padded arse and do something.

This has happened before and it will happen again. I’ve lost track of the number of times I’ve been stuck on the Outerbridge, or, ore likely, seen backups into NJ because there weren’t enough cash lanes open. I’ve also lost track of the times I’ve heard traffic reporters stating that the cash lanes of (name your PA crossing) are backing up due to lack of cash lanes. This isn’t rocket science and EZPass is not so new that somebody competent couldn’t have figured out proper staffing by now.

x

non staten island tax dollars? its the only borough that has no free way to get into it, we pay the same exact taxes, highest tolls and receive the least amount of benefits of those tax dollars and tolls

You live in a city of more than 8 million people, in a relatively small area. What do you think is suppose to happen?

It’s obvious why there weren’t any extra toll collectors — there was no way to guarantee that only NON-Staten Island tax dollars would be used to pay them!

This always happens at busy times. I think the reason is they do not want us to take advantage of the commuter discount. 3 or more people going to a manned lane with ezypass pay $2.00 if you have this feature on your account. Its a $6.00 savings, but then again us islanders are always getting the short end of the stick..

There is no excuse for what went on yesterday at the Outerbridge. We have an ez-pass and it didn’t help us. We were stuck in this delay for 4 hours. Traffic was backed up all the way down the Garden State Parkway. If the bridges are going to continue to accept cash then there should be more than one toll taker. There is on an average morning commute, so why not on a holiday? The fact that the same thing happened on the Goethals Bridge yesterday leads me to believe that this was a well organized plan by the toll workers.

James Oddo is my hero. Man has tiger blood to come up with the slogan
“galactically stupid.”

You mean there are idiots running the Port Authority?? I’m shocked, shocked I tell you.

I guess the number of motorist out to see granny had nothing to do with this? Having one cash lane open is a problem but not the problem. if Councilman James Oddo had a problem, maybe he should have helped out. Show the people he is actually doing something instead of flapping his gums and calling for heads to roll.

im still in the traffic

Really – this is called over-reacting. It’s the moron’s who don’t have E-Z-Pass. You often can get through more quickly during the week, when many regular drivers have E-Z-Pass, than on the weekends, when the “goin out for a weekend drive” crowd doesn’t. Get E-Z-Pass and stop sweaten the small stuff…

Port authority sucks. the workers just don’t feel the pain and the bosses are losers.

this is a nightly issue for people in NJ who live around the George Washington Bridge. Simple solution. Cashless toll collection. make everyone get EZ pass, or use photo enforcement, and make people without EZpass pay extra to cover the costs.

I have been in Easter traffic before….but it was at the Throggs Neck Bridge. The problem was not so much the lack of toll takers, it was the lack of drivers with EZpass. How the hell do you not have an easy pass these days?

The same thing happened in Ma. 2 yrs. ago, it was called a sick-out.

Even with EZ Pass, which I have, we were stuck in that traffic for 2 hours. It was ubelievable to see only 1 cash lane open when we got to the toll. This was at around 8pm…peak travel time. EPIC FAIL.

Another reason why everyone should have EZPass. Apparently they are trying to teach us a lesson into getting them. Lesson learned, lesson learned.

Where were the port authority police to control the flow of traffic?? I guess they were all off like the toll collectors.Opps, I forgot the port authority police don’t work weekends at the outerbridge because they are all on a special detail pulling speeders over illegally across state lines during the weekdays for traffic infractions……

I was not stuck in it,but it is the same problem always at The George Washington Bridge.I agree that someone needs to be held accountable for this.

Heard on the radio about the massive delays on Outherbridge and Goethals crossings and opted for the Lincoln Tunnel. It was a good decision. No tie-ups, but a little out of the way to get back to Queens. But we kept moving.