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Jul 21, 2007 7:15 am US/Eastern
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Time Is Money: Port Authority Mulls $30! Toll Lane
High-Occupancy Toll Would Speed You Into Manhattan
by Ti-Hua Chang
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
Would you pay extra for a time-saving express lane through the Lincoln Tunnel into Manhattan? Before you answer, what if the price was $30?
As CBS 2 HD found out, the Port Authority is asking commuters that very question.
Anyone who commutes from New Jersey through the Lincoln Tunnel into Manhattan knows about delays.
The Port Authority does, too.
This week it sent out a survey to some E-Z Pass commuters asking if they would use a "HOT" lane or a special lane only for buses, high-occupancy vehicles or drivers paying a higher toll. The range of the extra toll cost for vehicles is from $12.50 cents to $30.
The higher the cost, the faster a commuter could get into Manhattan.
"I think it's a good idea," said North Bergen resident Andres Llanes. "Who wants to spend all that time in traffic?"
The Port Authority floated this same idea three years ago. There is already a special bus lane that's bumper to bumper during the morning rush hour.
The creation of a high-occupancy high toll lane would mean one lane less for commuters paying the regular toll. That raises the question if one lane less means more waiting time for those commuters not willing to pay $12 to $30 more.
The Port Authority emphasized, "The hot lane concept is only in the preliminary stages of study and no decisions will be made before we will carefully study the impacts any changes would have on all tunnel users."
The Port Authority is also considering creating another bus-only lane as an alternative to the high toll lane. In the morning, five lanes would enter Manhattan and only one lane of six would be leaving.
The Port Authority says an H-O-T toll lane would not even be studied until next year.
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)