The government likes to make sure all the one-way tolls are going in the same direction in order to discourage people from making a toll-free circuit. So tolls in New York are generally collected on eastbound traffic. It’s not just along the New Jersey state line. All of the bridges on the Hudson collect eastbound tolls even when both sides of the crossing are in New York.
Pennsylvania also applies the principle of one-way tolling but they collect the tolls on westbound traffic.
New Jersey is literally stuck in the middle. It’s generally west of New York and east of Pennsylvania. The result is people can generally enter New Jersey for free but have to pay a toll to leave the state.
And don’t forget to include gasoline expense for the extra miles. Google Maps says Mineola to Paterson is 39 miles via the Throgs Neck, and 66 miles via the Verrazano. That’s an extra 27 miles, which is more than a gallon of gas on many cars.
Also: Google Maps says Mineola to Paterson is 51 minutes via the Throgs Neck, and 89 minutes miles via the Verrazano. That’s an extra 38 minutes. How much is 2/3 of an hour of your time worth?
Add up the tolls and the gas and the time. And as I tell my kids: Decide however you want, but have all the facts first.
Here. The bridge tolls are higher every time I go down, so any answer would only be temporary.
What, the one where I commented that those two bridge tolls are two-way, or that the tolls are substantial? Either is true, as you probably ought to know anyway if you care all that much.
Let us not forget the Delaware Memorial Bridge linking Delaware and New Jersey. The toll is collected exiting New Jersey and entering Delaware. There is no toll going from Delaware to New Jersey.
They did something similar with the Severn Bridge tolls here some years ago; you pay to cross from England into Wales but it’s free to go the other way. If you’re driving a van it’s worth crossing the river higher up at Gloucester to avoid the toll.
It’s not intended as a slight to NJ, really. The toll direction was chosen to maximize flow - there’s simply more room for cars to go and to spread out going away from a city, so there’s far less chance of a blockage backing up into the city. If the tolls went the other way, the congestion you see at the toll plazas would back up into the city and paralyze the whole thing.
That’s the same reason that the tolls on the Tobin Bridge are charged going into Boston (where the only actual historical case of gridlock ever happened, not in NYC), but it’s free to leave it.