Tappan zee bridge GW bridge

$30 @ 17/287/95 plus mileage. $100@ GW plus $8 in New Roch for 95 north the whole way. $78> mileage cost for out of route. I do it more times than any other route I service coming home.

 

depending on the fuel cost , lets say 6 mpg at 350 a gallon for the 40 extra miles is about 25 bucks in fuel making it about a 50 dollar bill. depending the time needed for that hour of driving may be the difference. if youre getting the rate you should to run that area it would be little to worry about.

 

I've been over both dozens of times and won't touch the GWB going north anymore. I go out of my way to run 287 east over the Tappan Zee even if I'm just hitting Nassau or Suffolk county on the island, dropping down over Throgg's Neck. Much nicer ride (for this part of the country anyway) and far cheaper toll. Will be even nicer when they get the new bridge built.

Coming south I will run across the Bronx if I want a change a scenery since its free. They've been working pretty hard on improving the road surfaces the past couple years and its actually a pretty decent ride if you get lucky and pass through when there aren't any accidents (which isn't often)

 

That's the best way to go if you're just trying to bypass the tri-state area to get north. I'll take 84 through CT any day of the week over the 95 poop show. (And my favorite TA of all time in Willington )

 

THAT takes an adventurous soul to brave 278 across SI and through Brooklyn. Occasionally I go this way trying to get from NJ out to 495 on the Island, and usually end up regretting it. Predictably and reliably a nightmare.

Thing that's infuriating about about Staten Island is that there is no reason at all for it to be such an awful and dangerous stretch of roadway. They have all the space they need over there to make it as nice as any interstate in the country but for some reason it languishes as a perpetual construction war zone of uneven pavement and narrow, shifting lanes. My theory is that native New Yorkers who live over there are simply used to inferior infrastructure and don't pressure the right people to get off their butt and do something about it. NY-440 that spurs south off of the expressway towards the Outerbridge crossing is NASCAR circuit smooth on the other hand and relatively free of traffic congestion.

 

Wait until they finish the new tappen zee bridge replacement. That toll will either be the same, or more than the GW bridge toll. But for now I boycott the GW bridge north bound. I don't understand how they get away with charging toll rates that high. These states sell off these highways and/or bridges to private and they put these tolls in, charge out the ###, poor road maintainance and make millions$$$$ the GW toll schedule raises $10 a year for 5 axle rigs.

 

Here's the toll rates for GW bridge. http://www.panynj.gov/bridges-tunnels/pdf/toll-table-2001-2015.pdf

 

Tappan Zee can be as cheap as $16.38 for a 5 axle truck if you have EZ-Pass and cross at off-peak hours. ($32.75 peak same for cash or EZ-Pass). GW can be as high as $105 cash during peak hours.

You'd have to go as far as 150+ miles out of your way to to burn enough extra fuel to make the GW a viable cost option vs the Tappan Zee, but it's nowhere near that far...30-40 extra miles at most. However the toll will undoubtedly rise in a few years once they get the new bridge built and running.

 

In all fairness, NYC just started a bridge strut & cable replacement project that is projected to cost over 1 billion dollars over a short period of time.


The inherit issue with NYC is that it's on an island and a peninsula- there's no realistic way to increase traffic flow through the creation of new bridges, though a new tunnel does look promising for local four wheeler traffic; the only way to ease the traffic to even the slightest degree is for the city through routes to build ontop of themselves...upper decks and a a middle to the GWB, gothel and Narrows.


The more work I do in NYC the more I become okay with being there. Freight pays good, and backhauls aren't terrible. But these roads need work. Every time I'm in Brooklyn I'm cussing out the DOT guys standing on the side of the road staring at potholes deep enough to break your ankle in. On my last trip into Manhattan I went down 113'th, and that road is just cringe worthy badly maintained. I got done, and headed out to the Vince Lombardi, did a check on the truck just because of all the vibration and holes; I found my rear right brake canister broke off on it's top mount courtesy of several blocks of unbelievable shocking and traumatic roads.


It's bad up there, road wise.