We rented what I'd call a mid-sized car: a Toyota Camry. Very reasonably priced.
We drove southeast toward Atlantic City, and paid about $7-8 dollars to cross bridges and toll roads. We stayed a night, and drove north, to New York City, the next day. We probably paid another $12 - $15 in tolls, going through New Jersey. Crossing through the Holland Tunnel, to Manhattan, we paid about $13. We reached our hotel in mid-town Manhattan, and we paid $27 for 24 hours of valet parking. (We actually thought that was a good deal.)
The next day, we paid another $13 or so to go through the Brooklyn Tunnel, and another few dollars to cross the Verrazano Bridge. We headed south on one of the NJ expressways, and paid a few more dollars before we arrived in the Asbury Park area. The following day, we paid another $5-7 driving back to Philadelphia. We filled up the tank for around $3.50/gallon, which we figured was about the going rate nationwide.
It's pretty clear to me, they do not want people driving cars in this area of the country. Tolls in and out of Manhattan are prohibitive, and the other interstate tolls are a constant bleed of any singles or change you might have in your pockets.
It's true, there are numerous mass-transit resources available. With the tax base and the geography, it lends itself well to support such systems. They keep talking about mass-transit here in Indianapolis, but we have neither the population or the resources to support such a system. Let me have my car, and let me do the driving.
The problem with mass transit is that the government has been all over it for many decades. It all used to be privately owned and operated, and then along came taxation, regulation, you name it. It’d be a nice alternative in private hands, but in public hands, it’s being used as a control tool; same with the government funding of roads.