In a sign of New York City’s economic health, MTA bridges and tunnels saw record traffic in 2023 despite a 6% increase in EZ Pass toll rates.
Some 335 million vehicles paid tolls in 2023 on the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, the Triborough Bridge, which link to Queens and the Bronx, and other MTA-run crossings, the agency said Thursday.
That was an increase of 1.3% over pre-pandemic year of 2019, when the MTA recorded the previous record of 330.7 million paid crossings.
Crossings at MTA bridges and tunnels generally track the city’s economic condition.
Toll crossings declined during the Arab oil embargo of the 1970s, the Gulf War recession of the early 1990s, and the Great Recession of 2009.
The steepest decline ever came during the COVID pandemic in 2020 and 2021.
Traffic rose after EZ Pass was introduced in the late 1990s, and after the elimination of toll barriers in 2017.
Toll crossings hit the record despite the 6% increase in EZ Pass toll rates on Aug. 6 — which was accompanied by a 10% jump in tolls charged motorists without EZ Pass.
Tolls are a big source of MTA money. They were forecast to rake in about $2.4 billion to the MTA in 2023 — about 14% of the money the agency’s total revenue, which also includes subway, bus and train fares, and taxes.
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