Manhattan bridge - free?

[Elko Tchernev]

I often drive from Stony Brook (Long Island) to Baltimore and back, and
crossing NYC is the biggest challenge on the way. While usually
congestion is the bigger annoyance, I wouldn't mind reducing the costs
too. I usually go LI -> Midtown tunnel -> 34th street -> Lincoln tunnel,
and NJ -> Staten Island -> Verazano bridge; these routes are straight
forward and relatively cheap. Recently, to my surprise, I noticed that
Manhattan Bridge is not listed on the EZpass site; does it mean that it
is free, or just that it does not use EZpass? If it turns out to be
free, then there would exist a way to cross from LI to NJ without
paying, namely 287 -> Tillary -> Manhattan Bridge -> Holland tunnel. Is
that really the case?

[Larry Finch]

Elko Tchernev wrote:

Yes, the Manhattan (and also the Williamsburg and Brooklyn) bridges are
free.

Larry

--
Larry Finch

N 40° 53' 47"
W 74° 03' 56"

[Lawrence Hughes]

If you must drive to Baltimore then the best route to take is the Belt
Parkway to the Verazanno-Narrows Bridge, across Staten Island, and
then the Outerbridge Crossing to New Jersey. This will limit the
inconvenience you put on New Yorkers by avoiding the local streets of
Manhattan.

Indeed, there are no longer any tolls on the Mahattan Bridge, but the
route along Canal Street is very congested and it would be desirable
not to encourage yet more motor vehicle traffic on this street.
Hopefully we will be successful in having tolls re-instiuted on this
crossing.

Better yet, rather than driving, take the LIRR to Penn Station and
travel on Amtrak's Acela Express service to Baltimore. From New York
it is only 2 hours 9 minutes to Baltimore. By taking the train you
won't pollute the environment as much, and you'll also also reduce the
risk to pedestrians and other motorists which is imposed by motorists.

On Mon, 18 Aug 2003 13:38:51 -0400, Elko Tchernev <etch...@acm.org>
wrote:

[Elko Tchernev]

Lawrence Hughes wrote:
> If you must drive to Baltimore then the best route to take is the Belt
> Parkway to the Verazanno-Narrows Bridge, across Staten Island, and
> then the Outerbridge Crossing to New Jersey. This will limit the
> inconvenience you put on New Yorkers by avoiding the local streets of
> Manhattan.
>

Sometimes I take that route. It has the drawback of being very slow
and frustrating - there's always something going on on the Belt parkway
- be it a crash, construction, or just plain congestion. Driving across
Manhattan is usually trouble-free, provided I do it at off-peak times:
10am to 11am, 1pm to 3pm, or after 7pm.

> Better yet, rather than driving, take the LIRR to Penn Station and
> travel on Amtrak's Acela Express service to Baltimore. From New York
> it is only 2 hours 9 minutes to Baltimore. By taking the train you
> won't pollute the environment as much, and you'll also also reduce the
> risk to pedestrians and other motorists which is imposed by motorists.
>

I'd certainly do that, if I could get on the train in Stony Brook
and get off in Baltimore. With the amount of luggage I carry, however,
any change of trains is out of the question. Plus, it is much more
expensive than driving (even with all the tolls included).
If I did not have to drive, I would be flying - Southwest has 1h
flights Islip <-> BWI approx. every hour.

[stud...@yahoo.com]

In article <bhr2uc$1rdbs$1...@ID-198329.news.uni-berlin.de>,
Elko Tchernev <etch...@acm.org> wrote:

Manhattan Bridge is free, but to cross from it to thte Holland Tunnel
can be a nightmare, about 1 mile distance, don't try during rush hours.

[mikE]

For the time being, they are. But be advised, there are militant whackbags
who want to screw over car owners and impose THIER will on the masses
by lobbying for tolls on the above-mentioned spans.

--

"We should not march into Baghdad. To occupy Iraq would
instantly shatter our coalition, turning the whole Arab
world against us and make a broken tyrant into a latter-
day Arab hero. Assigning young soldiers to a fruitless
hunt for a securely entrenched dictator and condemning
them to fight in what would be an unwinable urban guerilla
war, it could only plunge that part of the world into ever
greater instability."
-George H. W. Bush in his 1998 book "A World Transformed",

http://minime.de/bush/
http://www.911pi.com/
http://www.warprofiteers.com/
http://www.mindprod.com/bush911.html
http://www.rise4news.net/Saddam-CIA.html

[mikE]

Lawrence Hughes wrote:

> Indeed, there are no longer any tolls on the Mahattan Bridge,

When WERE there tolls on the Manny?

[Steven M. O'Neill]

JohnDoe <johnd...@comcast.net> wrote:
>>Indeed, there are no longer any tolls on the Mahattan Bridge, but the
>>route along Canal Street is very congested and it would be desirable
>>not to encourage yet more motor vehicle traffic on this street.
>>Hopefully we will be successful in having tolls re-instiuted on this
>>crossing.
>

>when in the last 100 years or so have there been tolls on that bridge?

But since Mayor William Gaynor removed tolls on the
four East River bridges in 1911, any call for reintroducing
tolls has been met with stiff resistance - despite evidence that
tolls would help most people in the boroughs, where few commute
over those bridges compared with those using subways.

-- "Gridlock" Sam Schwartz, in the Daily News,
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ideas_opinions/story/40723p-38447c.html
--
Steven O'Neill ste...@panix.com
www.bridgetolls.org

[Allston Parking Refugee]

Lawrence Hughes <lhu...@1stconnect.com> wrote:
> If you must drive to Baltimore then the best route to take is the Belt
> Parkway to the Verazanno-Narrows Bridge, across Staten Island, and
> then the Outerbridge Crossing to New Jersey. This will limit the
> inconvenience you put on New Yorkers by avoiding the local streets of
> Manhattan.

Except when there's a longer traffic delay on the Belt than on the
Manhattan approach, crosstown streets, and exit, which is frequently
the case, especially comparing the Belt to Midtown Manhattan; under
such conditions, it's better for an individual as well as for everyone
else if the individual seeks the quicker route.

> Better yet, rather than driving, take the LIRR to Penn Station and
> travel on Amtrak's Acela Express service to Baltimore. From New York
> it is only 2 hours 9 minutes to Baltimore. By taking the train you
> won't pollute the environment as much, and you'll also also reduce the
> risk to pedestrians and other motorists which is imposed by motorists.

Maybe *you* have the $140 per person each way to take the Acela
Express, but most people don't. Even the $70 on a regular off-peak
Amtrak train is prohibitively expensive.

If the government wants people to use the train to reduce pollution,
congestion, and traffic accidents, they should subsidize the train
appropriately.

-Apr