NY/NJ:Port Authority proposes radical new toll structure

The plan proposes discounts of between $1.00 and $2.50 for use of E-ZPass electronic toll (ET) transponders during peak hours off the $7 cash toll. With the introduction of congestion pricing, there would be discounts of $1.50 in the ET-toll at the bridges and of $2.00 at the tunnels for trips out of peak from the peak toll rates. These off-peak discounts amount to 23% for the George Washington Bridge (‘the George’ or GWB) and 33% for the Lincoln and Holland tunnels (LT, HT) and the three Staten Island bridges (SIBs), the Goethals, the Bayonne and the Outerbridge.

The idea is that a higher peak hour premium is justified at the tunnels than at the bridges because of the extensive PATH subway service and express bus in that central Manhattan corridor compared to lesser transit service at the bridges – the GWB being located at 178th St in the far north of Manhattan, while the Staten Island bridges to NJ are also out of the major transit routes.

In setting peak/off-peak toll differentials the PANYNJ has adopted a broader definition of the ‘peak hours’ than its companion tollster, the New Jersey Turnpike which pioneered peak/off-peak toll differentials Sept 30. Peak-hour rates at the PANYNJ crossings will be 6-9am and 4-7pm weekdays and 12-noon to 8pm weekends. For trucks there is a night discount 12-midnight to 6am, all days.

The proposal would abandon ‘commuter plan’ discounts for the bridges under which E-ZPass is currently used by local motorists to gain a 25% discount on tolls at the GWB and the three Staten Island Bridges by paying $60 for 20 trips that must be completed in 35 days. More generous still is the pure Staten Island Bridges commuter plan under which 20 trips can be bought for $40 valid for use in 35 days for a 50% discount on the cash toll.

The PANYNJ notes that these ‘commuter plans’ run counter to its objective of limiting rush hour traffic and proposes they be abolished in the move to time zoned pricing.

The new toll regime is estimated to garner an extra $201m/yr and will be the first toll increase since 1991. (PA’s transit arm gets only $78m in fare revenue, but costs $266m/yr, requiring subsidy of $188m/yr. Its fares are being increased in the hope of gaining $39m extra revenue.) Average car tolls are expected to be $4.99 under the new schedule vs $3.55 under the present – a 40% increase. Per axle truck tolls will be up slightly more or 51% from $4.00 to $6.10. Toll revenues at the crossings are running at around $580m currently and will go up about 35% under the toll increases to $780m reflecting an expected fall away of traffic in the high single digits percent.

Average toll per vehicle in 1999 was $4.30 ($531m/124m eastbound trips). If the average toll goes up 43% it becomes $6.53. PANYNJ collects an average annual daily 339k tolls, just a few more than Caltrans on its seven crossings in the Bay area (321k). Both are much less than the premier toll crossing system, the New York City Triborough (MTA) Bridges and Tunnels, which does 792k tolls/day at 9 crossings, most of them tolled both directions.

Reactions

There has been some local criticism of the proposed 75% increase in the cash toll, but this is muted by several factors: (1) it brings the cost of two-way travel on the PANYNJ crossings into line with the cash toll that has been in place at the Triborough Authority (MTA Brides and Tunnels) for nearly four years ($7.00 on the one-way tolling Verrazano Narrows and 2x$3.50 on the other major city toll crossings (2) the ET discount reduces the extent of the extra hit in customer pockets and the off-peak discount reduces that hit further (3) wide support for the capital program that the toll increases will finance (4) support for the bold value pricing initiative and its rationale of squeezing more utilization out of existing facilities.

Very positive press has accompanied the peak/off-peak differential (extracts p8.) Indeed all the editorials have supported the plan and most reporters have put a positive spin on it, or reported it straight.

Also strongly in support of the move is the Regional Plan Association (RPA) an established independent research and advocacy group. Its transp director Jeffrey Zupan has relentlessly pushed for congestion pricing and more than anyone else helped sow the seeds. Ed Gross CEO at the NJ Turnpike laid much of the political groundwork by successfully introducing peak/off-peak price differentials Sept 30. Of course much of the scholarly case was developed by the late Nobel prizewinning economist William Vickery, whose Columbia University is within sight of the bridge, just to the right of the picture.

The implementation of congestion pricing at the PANYNJ crossings will be closely watched throughout the toll industry. Variable toll rates are most spectacularly used on the 91 Express Lanes in southern California and on I-15 HOT lanes in San Diego. They are also in place on two toll bridges in Fort Myers in Lee Co Florida, on HOT lanes in Houston, and are due to be used on the TCA’s toll roads in southern California. They were introduced on the 407-ETR in Toronto. The New York State Thruway has different toll rates in place for trucks at the Tappan Zee Bridge. But with the New Jersey Turnpike and the PANYNJ the idea has been mainstreamed into a couple of the largest, longest-established toll systems in America. The PANYNJ is the second largest grossing toll agency in the US, and its premier facility the George Washington Bridge is the largest in traffic volume in the country, probably the world. So with the NJ Turnpike and PANYNJ variable toll rates go Big Time.

Excitement

Ken Philmus director of bridges, tunnels and terminals has been a leading formulator of the new toll structure, and says he and his staff are excited about the idea and think it will play a major role in traffic management in the region in the future. He says there is no realistic possibility of enhancing capacity at least at the Manhattan crossings and that the major thrust of the PANYNJ has to be to cope with the annual growth of traffic (2.5% or so in recent years) with the existing 24 trans-Hudson travel lanes: GWB 14, Holland 4, Lincoln 6.

“I am confident we have the right strategy in place. We are maintaining and improving our existing physical assets. With electronic toll collection we have eliminated most of the queues at the toll plazas. But we have to keep the momentum there. E-ZPass has laid the groundwork for value pricing which will help us make fuller use of our capacity in the off-peak hours. That is very exciting. And we have opened the first of six ITS systems (on the George Washington Bridge) which will give us a much better ability to respond to incidents.

“By and large our traffic flows through our facilities at present. But there is little or no margin. Everything is tight. So, even a single flat tire or a motorist running out of fuel can disrupt traffic for miles and turn a good day into a bad day, like that. ITS gives us the tools to zero in on a problem quickly and respond to minimize its impact by warning motorists behind, and to apply the correct resources to clear the incident. Incidents are not just time losses for our customers. They are a hazard. In tight conditions one small incident can easily snowball into a much larger one with secondary smashes.”

A PowerPoint presentation given to the PA board shows congestion in the New York area costed at $8.9b/yr and trip times up 30% compared to 1990. 2020 hours of delayed travel are expected to increase 60%, the presentation says. The “Costs of Not Acting Boldly” are reported as further “clogging of the region’s arteries,” “environmental degradation” and “adverse effect on competitiveness.”

The theme of the PANYNJ capital plan for tunnels, bridges and (bus) terminals is put as “preserving and stretching capacity.” The preservation is a major program of repainting and repairing. Capacity will be ‘stretched’ by better management of traffic through selective capital works, ITS and through the value pricing.

Anger at ‘backward’ characterization

Philmus got furious with the Raytheon company in November. He wrote them formally on behalf of the PA saying that that a Raytheon advertisement running in several trade journals is misleading. He demanded that Raytheon cease running the ad, and issue a retraction: “I am offended by the caption implying our equipment is ‘outdated toll technology’.”

The ad in contention uses a fish-eye lens representation of the George Washington Bridge Eastern toll plaza at Fort Lee NJ and part of the bridge deck on the western side and shows it chock-a-block with traffic on which is superimposed in boldface: “Is your outdated toll technology bringing traffic to a standstill? Raytheon’s cutting edge toll technology will get things moving again.”

Raytheon’s Highway Transportation Management Systems (HTMS) division was advertising its full highway-speed open-road toll system as implemented on Toronto’s new state-of-the-art 407-ETR toll road. (See ITS INTERNATIONAL NOV/DEC 00 Vol 6, #6p 41, TOLLtrans Traffic Technology International Aug/Sep 00 p39) But the PA’s Ken Philmus thinks his system at the George Washington bridge installed by Lockheed-Martin and Transdyne is also state-of-the-art.

It seems unlikely Raytheon was targeting the PA in particular as representative of old cash toll collection. Mike Trout, Raytheon HTMS president says the picture was a “stock photo” turned up by their ad agency, and he had no idea it was from the GW bridge. The picture is only identifiable as the GW bridge toll plaza from small blurred signage saying Fort Lee and the Garden State Parkway. The ad people should have used a picture of the toll plaza in Oakland Calif where queuing at San Francisco’s Bay bridge is longer than ever because of extraordinary delays there in implementing electronic toll collection!

Raytheon is apologizing to the PA and won’t use the picture again, but the guffuffle does raise the substantial issue of whether our toll authorities are going fast enough to embrace the new technologies.

There are decent arguments on behalf of the PA’s approach and Raytheon’s, each of which has its advocates within the toll business. Philmus can rightly point to major gains from the PA’s quite smooth E-ZPass implementation. Nearly 5 million motorists from Massachusetts to Maryland now benefit from transponders, and from the interoperability that has been organized among 12 toll agencies.

Traffic at the George Washington Br has increased some 10% (53.4m tolls in 99 vs 48.6m in 96) in the past four years (since E-ZPass) was installed, yet queues have been shrunk and toll payment wait times substantially reduced. Over half of the PA’s toll transactions are now electronic. Further improvement is possible. Some will be gained at the Palisades Parkway plaza above Fort Lee as this is opened for higher speed electronic tolling and from the PA’s $25m new ITS traffic management system, but beyond a point toll plaza throughput improvements will simply highlight bottlenecks elsewhere in the area’s roadways.

Beyond the plaza congestion

Interestingly a close look at the Raytheon ad shows backups from downstream of the GWB toll plaza. Traffic heading into New York City is at least as heavy after the toll plaza as before it – presumably because of non-toll related queuing on the off ramps to Henry Hudson Pwy, Amsterdam Av and the Major Deegan Exwy (I-87). Beyond the plaza (BTP) congestion is increasingly an issue as ET speeds traffic past the toll points.

At the same time Raytheon is entitled to hawk its more radical toll technology and to express some frustration at the hesitancy of U.S. toll operators in moving to a truly cashless system. Its Toronto installation provides those windshield transponders for the regular users establishing a monthly account, but for the approximate one third of motorists who use the toll road too infrequently it has cameras to photograph their license plate, then sends them a toll bill in the mail. That way no toll collectors are needed, and no one has to stop to pay a toll.

Ken Philmus agrees that something like Raytheon’s cashless system is the way of the future: “We believe in open road tolling, and we plan moves in that direction.”

The moves include an open road system at the Palisades Parkway, one of the three toll plazas at the George. And, he says it makes sense too at the three Staten Island (SI) bridges – the Goethals, the Bayonne and the Outerbridge. Those three toll plazas are a “straight shot” through and more like a toll road plaza than a bridge plaza, and well suited to electronic toll express lanes in an open road format. As these toll plazas are modernized they will probably have highway speed tolling incorporated into central lanes, Philmus suggests.

By contrast the two main plazas of the George and the Lincoln and Holland tunnel toll plazas are much more difficult to go open road. The Lincoln has a huge 360-degree spiral or helix in Union City NJ to take NY City bound traffic down from the Palisades to river level and below, which slows traffic anyway. The Holland plaza in Hoboken too has slow approaches and exits. The two Manhattan-bound tunnels have narrow lanes and they emerge exclusively on New York City surface streets and traffic signals, not an expressway. The George, while an interstate, has narrow lanes and many ramps with short accel/decel distances and some sharp jogs around structural bridge elements. So the travel time gains are much less from open road tolling at the major NJ-Manhattan crossings, which suggests at least a lower priority than the SI bridges.

ITS

Ken Philmus and his colleagues however have a multi-part strategy for improving service to motorists. They plan to finance $150m of ITS systems at the six crossings to be capable of managing them better. This means (1) balancing flows on the George’s two decks better by giving motorists good information on which level has spare capacity and building a new 270 degree loop ramp from the Palisades Pwy approach to the lower deck. Presently these motorists can only get onto the upper level. (2) Clearing incidents faster to reduce backups and secondary accidents. Officials say that overload type congestion is not too bad at the six crossings, but the margin of capacity is so small that quite small incidents have huge disruptive effects. A small sideswipe, a flat tires, and debris on the road can turn heavy but well-flowing traffic into a quagmire.

A dominant role is seen for electronic tolling (ET). As of November ET payments at the George are 59% of the total, a five point rise attributable mainly to the start of ET on the New Jersey Turnpike Sept 30, which is one of the major arteries plugged into the George on its western end. The PA wants to get ET payment share quickly to between 75% to 80% overall and 85% in peakhours, Ken Philmus told us.

The key to higher ET usage is the financial incentive in the new toll package, and the interoperability in the regional E-ZPass arrangements.

Philmus says the PANYNJ has to work closely with highway managers on either side of its facilities because they are only relatively short links in much longer transport systems. He likes to illustrate this by recalling an incident that occurred a few days after he became manager of the George in the 1980s – a flood in the Cross Bronx Expressway. Debris including – it was discovered after the event – dumped mattresses plugged up the drains in this depressed section of highway east of the George quickly turning the highway into a canal.

“I quickly understood I wasn’t managing the George traffic. That night we had the Cross Bronx Expressway managing our traffic,” says Philmus.

So the PA is emphasizing instant exchange of traffic information with other road managers in the region and beyond under a variety of acronyms: TRANSMIT, TRANSCOM etc. It is just completing a $25m ITS system for the George. That has bought an array of new systems to what would normally be called an Operations Center. At the George’s admin building it is simply called the Communications Desk. Back in the 1930s when the George carried 25k veh/day it probably WAS just a desk, says Steve Napolitano, the current bridge manager. And it would have been equipped with space for the notepad and the microphone of a radio dispatcher. There are now two operators and a place for a third in a room 6.7m x 3.6m (22' x 12'.) System integration by Transdyne has produced a neat way of assembling an array of pertinent data and issuing commands to an array of message signs, emergency vehicles, lights and so forth. They have at hand 36 full color pan/tilt/zoom TV cameras (Cohus) – an improvement on the 29 fixed grey scale cameras that go back to the 1970s. They have traffic data coming from two sources (1) 153 RTMS (remote traffic microwave sensors) or radar units from Electronic Integrated Systems (EIS, Toronto) (2) nine ET readers from Mark IV that use E-ZPass equipped vehicles in the various traffic streams as probes to detect their account numbers at points in the GWB network allowing continuous calculation of travel speeds on some 25 links. The radars and the ET tags provide partially overlapping sources of data on speeds and lane occupancy which are automatically displayed on monitors or wall displays either numerically or as a color coded map. Sudden changes in traffic flow flag the operators attention.

18 roadway weather information sensors from Sensing Systems Inc (St Louis) measure pavement and deck temperature, presence of surface water, ice or snow and measure salinity and freeze points. Other equipment measures wind speeds. The equipment is linked back to the toll admin building by a fiber ring, plus some microwave for CCTV set on the roofs of nearby apartment blocks. The bridge has a dedicated fleet of some 20 vehicles including motorist assistance pickups, tow-trucks or ‘wreckers’ as they call them ranging from small ones for cars up to units large enough to handle the biggest trucks, and its own fire trucks. All are equipped with automatic vehicle location equipment (AVL) – a GPS based system – that allows the dispatchers at the Comm Desk to constantly monitor the position of the units and choose the best one to assign to an incident.

The bridge has long had emergency telephone ‘call boxes’ for motorists to stop and report trouble. That system has been modernized with 69 new call boxes linked to the Comm Desk. Cameras home in immediately to provide a picture of a call box being used. Mobile phone calls are also received.

The GWB operates 2.6km (1.6mi) of roadways from Fletcher Av NJ immediately west of the toll plazas to Amsterdam Avenue on the eastern fringe of Manhattan so its responsibility includes the Trans-Manhattan Exwy ‘tunnel’ with air rights buildings overhead as well as a maze of ramps to the Henry Hudson Pway (NY-9A), local streets, the eastside FDR Drive, the Major Deegan Exwy (I-87) as well as the direct connections to the Cross Bronx Exwy (I-95).On the Jersey side the bridge is connected to the northern end of the NJ Turnpike (I-95), the east-west I-80, NJ-4, US-46, the Pallisades Interstate Pwy and local streets.

The GWB scrapped its previous five variable signs. It has 32 new amber LED Vultron (Detroit) variable message signs. They support 450mm (18") characters with a 5 x 7 LED format. The signs mostly 1.8m (6') high are up to 12.2m (40') wide and generally cover three lanes of traffic. Each sign contains photocells that adjust the brightness of the sign-LEDs to different background light conditions.

Different messages are stored in a system library, and some are chosen for confirmation by the dispatcher, or amendment, relative to different incidents. Others, especially the travel time estimates are amended automatically but can be over-ridden. Rounded to the nearest 5mins these offer motorists a prediction of trip times on the upper and lower decks and form an important tool in balancing traffic flows between the two.

“It is like reaching into the motorists’ cars and taking the wheel,” one of the operators says. When a sign changes to predict a 5min advantage on one level versus another people “really respond.”

“Within half a minute we can see the traffic has changed,” cars using slip ramps between the two approaches. The algorithms use moving averages and lags to avoid over-frequent changes.

Steve Napolitano, the bridge manager says the previous signs which simply said “BEST ROUTE UPPER (or LOWER) LEVEL” had little credibility with motorists and had little effect on traffic flows. The time prediction by multiples of 5mins seems to have more impact. Most of the signs are paired with half located well in advance and outside GWB property, the rest near decision-points for motorists to switch roadways on the bridge

approaches.

Incidents

The signs are the key to telling motorists of incidents or other lanes closures. Planned construction of a new loop helix from the Palisades Pwy to the lower level will give the Comm Desk new flexibility in distributing traffic between the two bridge decks.The Comm Desk can also communicate with motorists via highway advisory radio and an 800 telephone number. Part of the collaborative multi-agency TRANSCOM group, it sends incident information for some hundreds of miles on either side.

Incident response is the front-end of the system – getting crews including emergency services in to the incident spot and getting incapacitated people and vehicles out as quickly as possible. Every minute of an incident produces 8 to 10 minutes of slowed and congested traffic downstream, they say. The immediate objective is have any incident cleared within 10mins of it occurring. The ‘wreckers’ are distributed around the system in various parking spots as well as being on patrol moving around the system.

Mike DeGidio, was manager for the GWB ITS project. He notes none of the systems are unique. He says he made no attempt to see what’s out there already. Rather his approach was careful and deliberate analysis of what the Comm Desk needed and close collaboration with the contractor to implement it. He thinks they have an unusually smooth, easy to operate and efficient system. It is written in Sybase and runs on a pair of DEC Alpha computers. Everything is accessible on any of the PC workstations and projectible on the wall screens. Split screen arrangements allow an operator to have a pair of screens operating side by side, and to scroll from one to the other.

Also controllable from the Comm Desk are some 800 lights on the bridge and its approaches, and fans to move exhaust fumes out of the tunnel-like Trans Manhattan Exwy.

Gautam Charabarty, gen manager tech services at the PANYNJ says the agency plans similar ITS systems at the Lincoln and Holland tunnels and then later at the three Staten Island bridges, a program that is likely to cost $25m to $30m per crossing.

Goethals

The proposed capital works plan for the crossings division is mostly about rehabilitation, rebuilding, and requipping the existing crossings. Deleading and repainting of the GWB alone is estimated at $55m.The most contentious project is about $400m for work on the Goethals bridge – a cantilever steel truss girder bridge built in 1928. Part of I-278 it goes east from IC-13 on the NJ Turnpike in Elizabeth over Arthur Kill tidal river onto Staten Island NY feeding the Staten Island Exwy and the Verrazano Narrows bridge into Brooklyn.

The 2.2km (7100') long bridge carries 73k veh/day on four narrow lanes. The total roadway width is 12.8m (42ft) for four tiny 3.2m (10.5') lanes, no median, no breakdown shoulders. By modern highway standards a 12.8m (42') roadway is hardly adequate for 2-lanes (2x3.65m travel lanes 2x3m breakdown shoulders = 13.7m or 44') The Goethals lanes are horribly tight for heavy trucks many now 2.6m (8'6”) wide for a clearance of only 300mm (1') and that is before their mirrors. Repaving would be extremely disruptive since the bridge is heavily used at night-time, being an important link between 24-hours/day style facilities such as the ports area and warehousing on either side.

The PANYNJ has long had plans for twinning the existing Goethals span, putting all the traffic on the new span, rehabbing the existing one and ending up with a pair of 3-lane bridges. Some think they’d be better off sending the existing span to the scrap-metal yard after building a modern span striped for 6-lanes but with the deck to go wider should approach roads on either side be expanded or special lanes were needed for trucks or buses. However any Goethals expansion whatever is opposed by a vocal combination of environmental and neighborhood groups and others who think rail trains can substitute for roads.

PA tolls vs PA transit

For years there has been tension on the board of the PANYNJ, sometimes preventing adoption of a budget, over the extent of transit subsidies, most of which benefit NJ residents commuting on the PATH subway to jobs in northern NJ or in Manhattan. PATH bled $182m in losses last year with average daily ridership of 184k. The average PA transit trip costs $3.75, generates fare revenue of $1.06 and therefore requires a subsidy of $2.69. By contrast the average trip across the GWB costs $1.01, generates toll revenue of $2.26 and makes a profit of $1.25.The Lincoln tunnel and the least used SI bridge, the Bayonne, racked up 7-digit losses last year but overall the six PA crossings earned $531m in tolls with total costs including depreciation and interest of $341m for total profit of $190m. (see Tale of Two Modes above) The cost discrepancy between the two modes is even larger when you account for the difference in trips. The transit trips are all single person trips whereas the bridges and tunnel trips are vehicle trips and include many vehicles with multiple persons or freight loads.

HISTORY OF THE GEORGE: The bridge designer was a salaried employee, the chief engineer of the Port Authority, Othmar Ammann, a Swiss born, German educated immigrant who arrived in the US at age 25. He gained his experience as an assistant to David Steinman on the East River bridges. The bridge was built in exactly four years 1927 to 1931. It was initially only 6 lanes. An extra two central lanes were added in 1946. In its first twenty years it simply linked the surface streets of northern New Jersey and Manhattan. The 1950s saw the New Jersey Turnpike built to its western end and in the 1960s the Trans-Manhattan expressway and the Cross Bronx Expressway at its eastern end. These highways were built as part of the then new interstate system and so the George became an integral part of I-95 and carries a great deal of traffic going right through the region. The lower deck of the bridge with 6 additional lanes was built as part of handling this extra traffic load. The bridge has an actively used sidewalk for pedestrians on the northside and a lane shared by pedestrians and cyclists on the southside. It measures 1450m (4760') between anchorages. Until the opening of the Golden Gate Bridge in 1937 the George had the world’s longest central span at 1067m (3500’).

When the GWB was in construction there were fierce arguments about the esthetics of all-steel construction. Many disliked steel as a bridge material and wanted stone used to cover the trussed tracery of the towers’ structural members. The first designs show granite-faced towers. They were dropped mainly for reasons of economy. But many like the form-following-function nature of the present structure. It would certainly save on maintenance to sheet over the trusswork of the towers, but there would probably be an outcry if this was proposed now, so strong is sentiment for the status quo. The bridge was classified as an historic monument in the 1980s.

Part of the multi-level and built over Trans-Manhattan Expressway houses a large bus terminal also run by the PANYNJ.

Driving the bridge and its approach roads is an awesome New York experience with narrow roadway lanes, sudden death ramp exits, and sharply jogged lanes. Panoramic views over the Hudson and Harlem Rivers contrast sharply with the tunnel-like experience of the noisy subterranean Trans-Manhattan Exwy. The spirals of the interchange ramps with the Major Deegan Exwy are among the most spectacular loops in America.

The George has always been the busiest bridge in the US, probably in the world, currently running an annual average daily 300k veh/day compared to the next largest crossing the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge which runs about 250k veh/day. The George is a major truck route in its own right running 22k heavy trucks AADT. Last year the George took $245m in tolls. With the toll increases it seems likely to jump to $350m/yr tolls.

The bridge is one of New York’s landmarks. A special decorative lighting system was recently installed at the bridge which makes the towers, the deck span and suspension wires glow at night. An inhabitant of a nearby apartment building told the bridge manager Steve Napolitano that the new bridge lights had boosted the value of his property 20 percent, because people love the “bridge light show.” Good for relations with the neighbors! The bridge also boasts the “largest free flying American flag,” 90ft long by 50ft wide which is suspended in the arch of the New York tower. (Contact Ken Philmus PANYNJ bridges & tunnels 212 435 4400 www.panynj.gov)