Tappan Zee Bridge Tolls ???? (New York, Little Falls: loan, college, tax)

[grdnrman]

Originally Posted by Chava61

As far as I know there is no way to cross from NJ into the NYC area without paying a toll at some bridge or tunnel. Many people need to do business in NYC or simply NYC residents coming home occasionally are forced to pay these tolls. It isn't practical just to say everyone should move to avoid the tolls.

Yes. I know. Those tolls have been in effect for decades. So everyone must already know about them. I've paid them when I've crossed the Hudson. I wasn't serious about people moving to the east side of the Hudson and I know that if you're in NJ, you'll have to pay a toll to cross into NYC.

I just feel complaining about the tolls is like complaining about how hot the temperatures are or how bad traffic jams are. None of this is going to change. If the temperature is 98 degrees then that's the way it is; have to accept it. Same with tolls. Tolls are never going to be removed and they will only go higher. I've never seen any kind of fee be reduced. Everyone just has to accept it and either pay the toll or move somewhere else where no roads or bridges impose tolls.

You can only count on 2 things, maybe 3 things nowdays.
1.) Everyone is going to die someday.
2.) There will always be taxes of one sort or another which almost everyone will have to pay.
3.) The 1% - 2% rich & wealthy Overlords will always "game" the economic system to favor themselves and penalize ordinary average middle-class American citizens by whatever schemes they can devise; buy our governments, tax loop-holes so they pay as close to zero taxes as possible, "stash" their greedy unwarranted gluttonous incomes & bonuses in off-shore unreported non-disclosed bank accounts and fail-safe (for them) "investments".

Americans can complain all they want to about tolls but nothing is going to change.

Its the same with the U.S. Congress. We American citizens pay them decent salaries but Congressional Members make more money from Lobbyists, speaking engagements, and rich Billionaires than what we pay them. Congressional Members do not represent "we the people". They are "bought" by Billionaires to do Billionaires bidding. I can't believe that Congress has such a high approval rating of 9%. Personally, I would rate Congress at a high-quality very generous minus -60%. They all should be thrown-out-of-office for being the worthless do-nothing obstructionists imbeciles which they are; Kings & Queens of insanity/ineptitude/scammers/snake-oil salesmen/worthless morons=sorry to have to rate them with such high-esteem and high-respect. We need a battalion of psychologists and psychoanalysts on 24 hour duty at the Capitol Building so they can declare 70% of the Congressional Members insane and institutionalize them for lifetime. And Corporations have no loyalty to or concern for the United States nor do they care one iota about the American people, American society, nor the welfare of this country.

[Nexis4Jersey]

Originally Posted by Met8568

Wow, and no mass transit either.

They claimed there were no railroads to connect into , which is not true. On the Rockland County side you have the Future West shore line , Pascack Valley line and Port Jervis line. Between the Pascack Valley line used to connect into the Port Jervis line , the plan was to use this old abandoned line which would have costed about 50 million to restore. Since the line would hug the Interstate it would only cost 450 Million with grades factored in and on the Westchester side it would either continue to White Plains and then Stamford which is badly needed and go to Grand Central. The whole Rail Corridor from Port Chester to Suffern would have costed around 7 Billion which since it was mostly underground makes sense. Phase 1 was cheap , only 850 Million to a billion fair enough considering that the line would get 45,000 commuters off the highway. The whole Rail Corridor would have taken 150-200,000 cars off I-287 and Generated close to 18 billion in developments.

They also claimed there was no bus transit on either side , if you add all ridership of systems on both sides its about 350,000 who use the bus daily and over 360 routes...some of which use I-287.

You also have the growing the population in Rockland , Orange and Northern Bergen , all three should add another 1.4-2.4 Million by 2050.

The whole Project needs to be stopped and redone , people on the other crossings have a choice in taking transit over the Bridge , this Bridge doesn't come with that and it was promised over the past 20 years to both sides that it would.

[Mistertee]

Originally Posted by grdnrman

Yes. I know. Those tolls have been in effect for decades. So everyone must already know about them. I've paid them when I've crossed the Hudson. I wasn't serious about people moving to the east side of the Hudson and I know that if you're in NJ, you'll have to pay a toll to cross into NYC.

I just feel complaining about the tolls is like complaining about how hot the temperatures are or how bad traffic jams are. None of this is going to change. If the temperature is 98 degrees then that's the way it is; have to accept it. Same with tolls. Tolls are never going to be removed and they will only go higher. I've never seen any kind of fee be reduced. Everyone just has to accept it and either pay the toll or move somewhere else where no roads or bridges impose tolls.

You can only count on 2 things, maybe 3 things nowdays.
1.) Everyone is going to die someday.
2.) There will always be taxes of one sort or another which almost everyone will have to pay.
3.) The 1% - 2% rich & wealthy Overlords will always "game" the economic system to favor themselves and penalize ordinary average middle-class American citizens by whatever schemes they can devise; buy our governments, tax loop-holes so they pay as close to zero taxes as possible, "stash" their greedy unwarranted gluttonous incomes & bonuses in off-shore unreported non-disclosed bank accounts and fail-safe (for them) "investments".

Americans can complain all they want to about tolls but nothing is going to change.

Its the same with the U.S. Congress. We American citizens pay them decent salaries but Congressional Members make more money from Lobbyists, speaking engagements, and rich Billionaires than what we pay them. Congressional Members do not represent "we the people". They are "bought" by Billionaires to do Billionaires bidding. I can't believe that Congress has such a high approval rating of 9%. Personally, I would rate Congress at a high-quality very generous minus -60%. They all should be thrown-out-of-office for being the worthless do-nothing obstructionists imbeciles which they are; Kings & Queens of insanity/ineptitude/scammers/snake-oil salesmen/worthless morons=sorry to have to rate them with such high-esteem and high-respect. We need a battalion of psychologists and psychoanalysts on 24 hour duty at the Capitol Building so they can declare 70% of the Congressional Members insane and institutionalize them for lifetime. And Corporations have no loyalty to or concern for the United States nor do they care one iota about the American people, American society, nor the welfare of this country.

Wages are not keeping up with the tolls. These tolls, property taxes, local gov;t expenditure, etc. in NYS are not realistic and have gotten out of control. I love how the media only portrays random ppl who only have "positive" things to say about the bridge. Where are the folks who don;t agree with it? Where is the difference of opinion? Can't you see the spin with their proposals? New bridge costs only this much, old bridge tolls will go up anyway? Maybe we should think about a completely new bridge incorporating green energy, some sort of microbiologic additive that prevents rust, etc. That would to cut costs. Where;s the think tank behind that? I see up and coming economies putting more thought into their projects but we cant envision past a decade or two besides incorporating mass transit which is stil not feasible. What is going to happen to home values in Rockland and Orange Counties?

[Dregg]

Ya gotta love NY eh?

I'll be leaving as well.

[Mightyqueen801]

Originally Posted by Nexis4Jersey

They claimed there were no railroads to connect into , which is not true. On the Rockland County side you have the Future West shore line , Pascack Valley line and Port Jervis line. Between the Pascack Valley line used to connect into the Port Jervis line , the plan was to use this old abandoned line which would have costed about 50 million to restore. Since the line would hug the Interstate it would only cost 450 Million with grades factored in and on the Westchester side it would either continue to White Plains and then Stamford which is badly needed and go to Grand Central. The whole Rail Corridor from Port Chester to Suffern would have costed around 7 Billion which since it was mostly underground makes sense. Phase 1 was cheap , only 850 Million to a billion fair enough considering that the line would get 45,000 commuters off the highway. The whole Rail Corridor would have taken 150-200,000 cars off I-287 and Generated close to 18 billion in developments.

They also claimed there was no bus transit on either side , if you add all ridership of systems on both sides its about 350,000 who use the bus daily and over 360 routes...some of which use I-287.

You also have the growing the population in Rockland , Orange and Northern Bergen , all three should add another 1.4-2.4 Million by 2050.

The whole Project needs to be stopped and redone , people on the other crossings have a choice in taking transit over the Bridge , this Bridge doesn't come with that and it was promised over the past 20 years to both sides that it would.

The problem is simply that the TZ bridge is past the end of its useful life, and it needs to be replaced asap. No one is going to open their mouth and say outright that it's not "safe", but for a long time too many people holding the pursestrings for infrastructure in this country said "good enough" and ignored aging facilities--until the I-35 bridge took a lot of people into the Mississippi five years ago. It's already a $4 billion design/build. A mass-transit component added on will add much more money, and more importantly, a lot more time, and time has run out for the Tappan Zee bridge. Can you imagine the traffic nightmare if they had to close it, or worse--if a collapse happened? Pushing off the mass-transit issue to the future might not seem like the optimal idea, but adding years more delay to replacing the bridge could literally be distastrous. And lets not forget that you've got a governor who has his eye on the prize for 2016. A lotta people getting killed on his watch because he held up a huge project requiring immediate attention isn't something he wants on his resume.

[grdnrman]

No one wants to put money into U.S. infrastructure except for a few of us who know that those investments are years past due. Do you remember the year when the NYS Thruway bridge near Little Falls-New York collasped? I do! People on the bridge died!!

Our Federal Government has money for infrastructure "investments" (wastes) in Iraq and Afghanistan which are promptly destroyed by people living in those countries who want us to go home and mind our own business; not try to dictate to the whole world.

Yes we have no money for investing in U.S. infrastructure, but we have plenty/truck loads of money to build endless amounts of bombs and bullets to conduct endless wars. Just in case you don't know it, the U.S. spends >>more money<< on our Military/Pentagon budget than the combined-moneys spent by the next >> 17 << largest foreign Militaries budgets put-together(Countries)(money-combined-together) in the world. Think about all the good we could do in our country if we'd stop spending this obscene amount of money on Pentagon/Military/waging wars. Republican President Dwight David Eisenhower warned the American People about the Military-Industrial Complex which would get out of control and spend more and more money on waging wars if the American People did not keep them under control; we're now way past the point of "under control".

Oh yes. The Federal Government wants to make big cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Affordable Health Care Program, Food Stamps, lower interest-rate college student education loans program, and other programs which help average middle-class families and Americans in poverty and senior citizens, but they've got plenty of money to give to the rich & wealthy Overlords for their loop-hole tax breaks and the Fed. Gov.'s got lots of subsidy-money to give to Corporations who move our jobs & industries to China-India-Mexico-other countries while those Corporations are already making record-breaking profits. ` ?? Subsidies to Corporations who are already making record-breaking profits.?? ` No wonder there are words in the dictionary such as: imbeciles, scammers, greedy, opportunists, swindlers, cheats, frauds, unscrupulous, acquisitive, avaricious, unprincipled. We need these words to describe these no-values no-conscience selfish Corporation officials and the rich-wealthy who have no concern-regard-caring-consideration-decency toward us lowly serfs=average American citizens.

[Phyxius]

Originally Posted by grdnrman

No one wants to put money into U.S. infrastructure except for a few of us who know that those investments are years past due. Do you remember the year when the NYS Thruway bridge near Little Falls-New York collasped? I do! People on the bridge died!!

Our Federal Government has money for infrastructure "investments" (wastes) in Iraq and Afghanistan which are promptly destroyed by people living in those countries who want us to go home and mind our own business; not try to dictate to the whole world.

Yes we have no money for investing in U.S. infrastructure, but we have plenty/truck loads of money to build endless amounts of bombs and bullets to conduct endless wars. Just in case you don't know it, the U.S. spends >>more money<< on our Military/Pentagon budget than the combined-moneys spent by the next >> 17 << largest foreign Militaries budgets put-together(Countries)(money-combined-together) in the world. Think about all the good we could do in our country if we'd stop spending this obscene amount of money on Pentagon/Military/waging wars. Republican President Dwight David Eisenhower warned the American People about the Military-Industrial Complex which would get out of control and spend more and more money on waging wars if the American People did not keep them under control; we're now way past the point of "under control".

Oh yes. The Federal Government wants to make big cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Affordable Health Care Program, Food Stamps, lower interest-rate college student education loans program, and other programs which help average middle-class families and Americans in poverty and senior citizens, but they've got plenty of money to give to the rich & wealthy Overlords for their loop-hole tax breaks and the Fed. Gov.'s got lots of subsidy-money to give to Corporations who move our jobs & industries to China-India-Mexico-other countries while those Corporations are already making record-breaking profits. ` ?? Subsidies to Corporations who are already making record-breaking profits.?? ` No wonder there are words in the dictionary such as: imbeciles, scammers, greedy, opportunists, swindlers, cheats, frauds, unscrupulous, acquisitive, avaricious, unprincipled. We need these words to describe these no-values no-conscience selfish Corporation officials and the rich-wealthy who have no concern-regard-caring-consideration-decency toward us lowly serfs=average American citizens.

While I do not like the idea of toll increase myself and will not pay for them if it does not benefit me, well said.

[JohnnyMotts]

Peace out NY.

Its been real.

[Roland 544]

The best would be an even 20 bucks, same as a gallon of gasoline (comming soon) It would bring public transportation, small buinesses and a whole lot of local stuff right where you live, not in the mall or Wallmart. Suburbia is overated.

[VA Yankee]

Originally Posted by Roland 544

The best would be an even 20 bucks, same as a gallon of gasoline (comming soon) It would bring public transportation, small buinesses and a whole lot of local stuff right where you live, not in the mall or Wallmart. Suburbia is overated.

Great dream, good luck relocating and duplicating,all the places of employment & services that people require. Public transit would never develope to what you perceive is needed. Accept suburbia is a way of living and not everyone wants an urban lifestyle....