The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) began installing camera equipment on New York highways to monitor congestion fees for entering Manhattan’s central business district (south of 60th Street), according to The New York Post. License plate readers have been attached to a pedestrian walkway above FDR Drive at East 25th Street that will be used to track vehicles that go into the toll congestion zone or stay on the highway. The sensors are being installed on Route 9A/the West Side Highway for the same purpose, the MTA confirmed, although both highways are excluded from the toll under state law.
Motorists who drive on FDR Drive are concerned the equipment could eventually be used to charge tolls on the state highway. Although the state Legislature would have to amend the law, concerns have been raised over a “bait and switch,” if the MTA asks the state for more money in the future.
The MTA said the license readers will only be used as a “verification point” to identify which vehicles stay on roadways excluded from the congestion toll. Currently, the legislation says drivers using the Hudson River and East River tunnels will get a $5 discount on the $15 toll, while both the FDR Expressway and West Side Highway would remain toll-free. It also allows those who live in the congestion zone and make less than $60,000 annually to deduct the cost from their taxes. Low-income drivers from parts of the metro area more than half a mile from a subway, commuter railroad, or express bus stop would also receive a discount.
Suburbanites and residents in parts of the outer boroughs and New Jersey – and unions representing city municipal workers – oppose paying a higher toll to get into Midtown or downtown Manhattan, and a growing number of lawmakers are using objections to the newly-planned toll in their re-election campaigns.
Source: New York Post
