Going Cashless: Toll Freeze, Commuter Discounts on the Tappan Zee Bridge

When the New NY bridge replaces the 60-year-old Tappan Zee Bridge in two years, tolls won't increase to pay for it -- at least not till 2020.

That proposal, floated months ago by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, made it into the state budget approved last week.

It's good news for commuters, who will hang onto their $2 discount on the TZB while they wait for the $4 billion twin crossing to open.

That is, if they have E-Z Pass -- which about 80 percent of the cars that drive over the TZB do, the highest rate in the New York Thruway system.

The bridge switches to cashless tolling April 23, which means vehicles without E-Z Pass will get a bill via Tolls by Mail, which detects classes of vehicles and applies the correct charge, each time they pass under the camera-laden gantry on the Rockland side of the Hudson River.

The Thruway has a commuter discount for the Tappan Zee Bridge:

• Thruway Tappan Zee Bridge Commuter Plan: Monthly minimum Tappan Zee Bridge usage charge of $60 (20 trips at $3.00 per trip) vs. the full toll of $5.00 per trip.

Under the new cashless tolling system, the Thruway Authority will also accommodate a small existing carpool discount program. These carpoolers have paid just 50 cents per trip up (minimum 20 trips a month) when they drove through a manned toll booth with at least three people in the vehicle.

But the tollbooths will be gone as of April 23.

The NYTA's board voted Friday to accommodate the participants, who number roughly 2,700. Participants will be charged 50 cents per trip up to their historical peak usage -- which Thruway officials can calculate from their E-Z Pass history. Above that level, they'll get the standard $3-per-trip commuter discount.

Letters will be going out to the current carpool list, explaining how the new deal will work and allowing them to sign up. Sadly, NYTA officials have frozen the 50-cent program and no new participants will be accepted.