No more Carpool Toll Discount as the Outerbridge Crossing goes Cashless

Driving from Lakewood to Brooklyn will get even ore expensive since there wont be any option to request a carpool discount as the toll booths are being removed. Also NJ EZ-pass tag holders will now pay $19 to cross the Verrazzano Bridge from Brooklyn to Staten island.

NJ.com- Drivers who use the Outerbridge crossing can put away their cash, because the bridge between New Jersey and Staten Island will be the latest Port Authority crossing to go cashless next week. The Outerbridge will join the Bayonne Bridge on April 24, its first day of cashless operations.

“This will speed the trip for the traveling public and also will have environmental benefits by eliminating idling vehicles queued up to pay the toll,” said Port Authority Executive Director Rick Cotton in a statement.


Once the three Port Authority Bridges from New Jersey to Staten Island -- the Bayonne, Outerbridge, and Goethels -- switch over to cashless tolls, it is predicted to save drivers approximately 200,000 hours a year in travel time, reduce toll booth crashes by 7 to 10 percent, and cut exhaust emissions from idling traffic by 11,500 metric tons of carbon dioxide a year.

Drivers with an E-ZPass tag will see no change when they drive under an overhead gantry at the posted speed limit. Drivers without an E-ZPass tag will have a picture taken of their license plates by cameras installed on the gantry, and will be sent a bill for the toll.

The Bayonne Bridge became the first Port Authority crossing to use cashless tolling in February 2017 and the agency plans to implement cashless tolls on the Goethals bridge later this year. There is no timetable for implementing cashless tolling on the authority’s three Hudson River crossings, officials said.

Drivers will encounter some closed lanes in the days preceding the change to cashless tolling. The eastbound Outerbridge Crossing will be closed from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. on April 22 and April 23 to complete road realignment and striping for the new system. The westbound lanes of the bridge will remain open during these closures.


Eastbound traffic will be detoured to the Goethals or Bayonne bridges during the closure.