Parkway toll plan unveiled By year’s end, drivers on the Garden State Parkway will only have to pay tolls on one side of the major toll plazas in Sayreville and Asbury Park. Gov. James E. McGreevey unveiled a plan recently to institute a one-way toll program by removing toll barriers on the northbound side of the Raritan Toll Plaza in Sayreville and on the southbound side of the Asbury Park Toll Plaza. In turn, tolls will be doubled to 70 cents at Raritan’s southbound side and at Asbury Park northbound. The benefit of the plan, McGreevey said, is that all drivers will be able to travel more than 40 miles on the parkway without encountering a toll barrier. Since part of the plan also calls for Express E-ZPass to be installed at Raritan’s southbound side and Asbury Park northbound, E-ZPass customers will be able to travel 74 miles without slowing down to pay a toll. McGreevey said the usage of alternate tolls will provide a savings of more than $2 million annually in E-ZPass transaction costs by cutting the number of transactions in half with the removal of the two toll plazas. "Alternate tolls on the Garden State Parkway brings a double benefit — we’re cutting commuting times and cutting costs," McGreevey said. "It also gives us an opportunity to expand the capabilities of our highly successful Express E-ZPass program, which has been dramatically improving the commutes for thousands of motorists in northern New Jersey." Not everyone was pleased with the news, however. The independent Citizens Against Tolls group said the plan represents a broken campaign promise on McGreevey’s part. "Instead of honoring his campaign promise to remove parkway tolls within a seven-year timeframe, the governor decides instead to invest many more millions in perpetuating parkway tolls, one of the most expensive and wasteful taxes that the public pays," said John Millett, secretary of the citizens group. "The governor claims he will offset the $8 million cost of demolishing toll booths by the $2 million savings realized with fewer E-ZPass transactions. What’s wrong with this picture?," Millett asked. According to McGreevey’s office, a study conducted by the New Jersey Turnpike Authority, which now operates the Garden State Parkway, determined the Asbury Park south and Raritan north toll plazas were ideal locations for implementing the one-way toll program based on daily traffic patterns and roadway geometry. Approximately 72 percent of all Asbury Park traffic travels through the Raritan plaza, while 39 percent of the Raritan traffic travels through the Asbury Park plaza. Out of the roughly 42,000 E-ZPass customers who pass through the Asbury Park plaza going northbound on a given weekday, 31,000 also pass through the Raritan plaza. The toll barrier removals will be complete by the end of this year, according to McGreevey’s office. Construction of Express E-ZPass in the opposite direction will begin shortly thereafter and will complete by the summer of 2005.