This past week, Assemblywoman Stacey Pheffer Amato (D-Rockaway) met with MTA Bridges and Tunnels to discuss ongoing issues of congestion, ticketing and tolling on the bridges that connect to the Rockaway Peninsula. While there, she received a briefing on the wind-down process of bridge construction, which has led to months of frustrating congestion for residents of the Peninsula and Broad Channel, as well as important information on the rollout of cashless tolling, which will be implemented around the same time for all of New York City.
“Every week, we get plenty of calls about bridge congestion due to construction. Not that we expect to ever receive our last congestion call, but we’re looking forward to getting this major project completed so we can get back to a relatively normal commute,” said Pheffer Amato. “We thank the MTA for the job they’ve done to bring our infrastructure current.”
Meanwhile, Pheffer Amato returned with “plenty of crucial information to roll out” to constituents about the beginning of the Cashless Tolling era, which will see “open-road” systems replace toll booths. “You’ll have three choices,” said Pheffer Amato, referring to toll payment options on the Cross Bay and Marine Park Bridges after April. “You can buy an EZ-Pass, in which case you’ll get the EZ-Pass discount. Physical tokens will be gone; there’ll still be a cashless system of E-Tokens, which must be bought online before you travel. And finally, if you have neither, you’ll receive a bill in the mail, because they’ll take a picture of your license plate.
“This is all very important to understand before April 30th,” Pheffer Amato continued, “which is why I’ll be doing whatever I can to get the word out. These changes will impact every regular commuter, every visitor – anyone who crosses the bridge by car. We’ll do our best to answer questions from our office; for more information, people should visit www.mta.info/ezpass.”
As a final note, Pheffer Amato wants the few customers who still have physical tokens to know they can get them exchanged for cash. To request a token refund kit, commuters should visit www.mta.info and click “Contact Us.”
