Garden State Parkway

Steve Lonegan of the local branch of Americans for Prosperity sees it as his job to speak up for the people of his state who are facing higher and higher expenses supporting various government agencies. So when the New Jersey Turnpike raises tolls by 50% Lonegan is into it. And he's being quoted as saying the people of the state "will now face the highest tolls in the country.” 

Many people have called it the "honor system" on New Jersey's Garden State Parkway. If you find you don't have the necessary coins in an Automatic Coin Machine (ACM) lane there's a box dispenser of pre-addressed envelopes. If you are a good guy you grab an envelope from the box, and go on your way.

Turnpike officials say that the their number 2, deputy executive director John O'Hern personally led a small rescue team to get 125 people to safety who were stranded in the snow Sunday night on the Garden State Parkway north of Atlantic City. O'Hern heard the reports and led a maintenance man and two state troopers to search out the stranded people. They gave them bottled water and radioed for a bus to pick them up.

- first reported by Karen Rouse, Bergen Record

TOLLROADSnews 2010-12-27

The New Jersey Turnpike Authority which manages the Garden State Parkway is holding public hearings as part of the permitting process needed to rebuild and widen 15 miles, 24km between interchanges 48 at US9 Smithville/New Republic and IC63 NJ72 Manahawkin, Long Beach Island.

New Jersey Turnpike Authority lawyers are seeking costs against the regular anti-road protesters at the Tri-State Transportation Campaign (TSTC) for a "frivolous" lawsuit against widening the Garden State Parkway. TSTC is suing for an injunction to stop work on the widening project MP30 to MP80, a stretch of 80km (50 miles) on the Jersey shore.

New Jersey Turnpike Authority says work was finished on the new Driscoll Bridge on the Garden State Parkway with all 15 lanes open from May 20 2009. The bridge at Milepost 126 just south of the interchange with the New Jersey Turnpike consists of two heavily rebuild and rehabilitated spans and a third new span side by side over the  Raritan River in Perth Amboy, 42km (26 miles) southwest of Central Park in New York City.

Toll tokens minted for the New Jersey Highway Authority (NJHA) for use on its Garden State Parkway in the 1980s all had the year "1952" stamped on them, 1952 being the year the NJHA was established. With coins the convention is that they are stamped with the year of minting, but that convention wasn't applied to Garden State Parkway toll tokens. (see picture) We've been wrestling with this after we carried an advertisement for a 1952 token.

We're wondering: were we conned by a guy seeking to sell to collectors a 1952 New Jersey Highway Authority token for the Garden State Parkway? We wrote up his advertisement Feb 7 here:

http://www.tollroadsnews.com/node/3988

A New Jersey reader has just told us he only remembers tokens coming into widespread use in about 1990.

Jerry Stutts now 78 has always been a collector, he tells us, but he's gradually selling off collectibles to supplement his social security income. He wonders if any readers are interested in buying from him a 1952 Garden State Parkway token. Dated 1952 it must be one of the first tokens to be used in  automatic coin machines (ACMs) anywhere because we know the Garden State Parkway was where they were first deployed, and it was opening in stages around that time.

Garden State Parkway toll tokens will cease to be accepted in payment of tolls in the new year, signaling the end of an era for an early mode of automatic toll payment. The tokens were last sold Jan 1 2002 but motorists hoarded so many - an estimated 50 million -  they continue to be used in small numbers in the Parkway's automatic coin machines.  Sold in rolls of 30 for $10 vs $10.50 for the same number of cash tolls they have offered a 4.8% discount over coins since 1989.