Long-awaited increases in the cost of traveling the Garden State Parkway and the New Jersey Turnpike went into effect at 12:01a today.
From the Asbury Park Press, regarding Parkway tolls:
At most booths the price will rise from their current 35-cents to 50-cents. At one-way booths - such as the Raritan Toll Plaza which now collects tolls only on the southbound side - the toll will rise from 70-cents to one dollar.
At the same time toll increases on the New Jersey Turnpike will increase the cost for the average 22-mile trip from $1.20 to $1.70 starting Monday.
The toll from Exit 11 in Woodbridge to Exit 1 at the Delaware Memorial Bridge will rise from $3.40 to $4.75.
Motorists with E-ZPass will receive a discount during off-peak hours with a rise from $3.40 to only $3.50. The off-peak rate applies to E-ZPass users who enter the turnpike outside the rush-hour periods between from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m., and 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
Traveling the average-trip distance of 22 miles on the Turnpikewill cost $1.70, up from $1.25, the Star-Ledger reports.
The Press story features a lookback by members of Sayreville’s Laskiewicz family, who in 1954 were the first to pay the toll to cross the Parkway’s bridge across the Raritan River, and puts today’s increase into historical perspective. Compared to the overall cost of living, apparently, the Parkway remains something of a bargain:
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, that 25-cent toll [Theodore] Laskiewicz paid in 1954 would have the purchasing power of $2.01 today.
In 1954 the average American made $3,960 annually. The average cost of a new car was $1,900. The average cost of a hotel room for two was $7, according to a travel guide published that year by the Shell Oil Company.
Since 1954 wages, the cost of a car and a hotel room for two increased more than tenfold, while parkway tolls have merely doubled.
The federal minimum wage was 75 cents per hour in 1954. The parkway toll consumed one-third of that hourly wage. The federal minimum wage today is $6.55. A toll Monday will consume only about one-13th of that hourly wage.
The full schedule of what the turnpike authority calls a “toll adjustment” is available here.
To simply base the toll increase to the minimum wage from a percentage standpoint for the sake of comparison, is not only unfair, it is quite inaccurate.
Our dollars in 1954 were backed by GOLD while our fiat currency today is backed by nothing.
Tax payers in 1954 were not bombarded by so many incremental fees, penalties, excessive credit card debt/rates, surcharges, surging property taxes… all during extended periods of stagflation.
I can elaborate further but will spare you the macroeconomic lession.
This is just what we need in a bad economy, higher commuting costs. I reference your story in a recent post on blog:
http://www.pay4rides.com/2008/12/nj-toll-increases/
We are all to blame for not standing up to those whores in Trenton. Every year our fiscal house gets worse while our Goverment grows and business/tax base leaves the state. How about we start voting some of these do-nothings out of office next cylce.
The tolls should be our rallying cry. The have the balls to raise tolls on a road that is supposed to be free now that it has been paid off to cover thier buts cause they cant show any fiscal responsibility? We really need a change.
Just run the exact change lane to protest..There are cameras in them, however violators are not cited..Citations are mailed only for e-z pass violations.
All great points guys…thanks! Reading and hearing concerned tax payers voices in such context is always encouraging.
Let's continue to demand better government oversight and fiscal responsibility.
Remember: When People are afraid of Government, you have tyranny; when Government is afraid of the People, you have liberty.
- Joe
You think this is bad ,just wit till you get your bill for the state workers pension bail out ….property taxes uo 12% to 17%…no that's something to protest !
A property tax increase to fund Whitman's raid on the pension fund? Wouldn't that be an income tax increase? The state doesn't get any of your property taxes.
Hey, The pension fund is not the problem. Whitman and others continued to over spend and then hit the pension fund for money. Now the market has changed and that money that was never put back is the problem. These are the same people who supported doing away with social security and letting you invest in the market instead. Can you imagine if that had actually passed? Stop taking money from accounts that are not there for you to spend from.