Cashless Tolls Coming to Every City Bridge, Tunnel Starting in January, Cuomo Announces

NEW YORK, NY — Gov. Andrew Cuomo is ready to make toll-lane traffic jams a thing of the past. Cuomo announced on Wednesday the city will replace all the toll plazas with "cashless tolling" as early as January. Nine different crossings will adopt the "open-road" tolling.

The seven bridges and two tunnels which will go without tolling stations are the Henry Hudson Bridge, Whitestone Bridge, Throgs Neck Bridge, RFK Triborough Bridge, Queens Midtown Tunnel, Hugh L. Carey Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, Marine Parkway-Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge and Cross Bay Veterans Memorial Bridge.

A pilot program actually began back in 2012 on the Henry Hudson Bridge. Cuomo announced cashless tolling for the Tappan Zee Bridge back in March.

Sensors will be suspended over the road, allowing drivers the ability to continue through without stopping. Drivers who have an E-ZPass will be charged automatically, while those who do not will have their license plate recorded and a bill mailed to the registered owner.

Cuomo set a goal of beginning the conversion process by January with an end date of December 2017.

The governor also announced tunnels in the city will get new flood protections, including new barriers to seal off tunnels during storms such as Superstorm Sandy.

"New York's bridges and tunnels are used by millions of people each year and essential to our entire region's economic success," Sen. Joseph Robach, chair of the Senate Transportation Committee, said in a statement. "Gov. Cuomo has put forward a plan to reimagine our transportation system for the 21st century and it will result in less traffic, increased capacity, and more durability to withstand natural disasters."

Cuomo also emphasized the addition of LED lighting to many of the city's bridges, some of which has already been announced. The bridges will be able to light in different colors to support holidays, charities or sports victories — like, oh, say, a Mets World Series title (as the preview video jinxes).

The state also said it will be testing out facial recognition cameras to aid in national security, emphasizing the recent bombings in New Jersey and Chelsea.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) took issue with the facial recognition software, saying it misidentifies people of color at a higher rate than white people.

"Gov. Cuomo unveiled his plan on Wednesday to 'Reimagine New York’s Crossings' — an initiative that includes several technological updates to transportation systems in New York," the ACLU said in a statement on Thursday. "However, among these updates the 'crossings project' also calls for installing controversial advanced cameras, license plate readers and facial recognition technology, which is known to be notoriously inaccurate and misidentifies people of color at a higher rate than white people."

Photo Credit: Gov. Cuomo's Office