Cabbie Accused of Avoiding 3,000 Bridge Tolls by Tailgating Car in Front of Him

NBC New York ^ | April 17, 2014

[EveningStar]

A New York City taxi driver is accused of avoiding bridge tolls more than 3,000 times in two years by tailgating cars in front of him and slipping through the tollbooth before the barrier came down, prosecutors said Thursday.

The 69-year-old driver, Rodolfo Sanchez, is charged with third-degree larceny, theft of services and fifth-degree possession of stolen property, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said.

[CaptainK]

The 59th Street Bridge isn’t tolled. I think the same goes for the Williamsburg and Manhattan Bridges.

[Alberta's Child]

According to the story at the link, they caught him once and then went back looking over months and years of video tapes from the toll system. They probably found a pattern in his offenses and zeroed right in on the time of day and days of the week when he was a “regular” at the RFK Bridge.

[Secret Agent Man]

So basically any bridge connecting to another state is toll. I know the bronx is part of NYS.

[Alberta's Child]

1. Any bridge/tunnel connecting NYC to New Jersey has a toll.

2. Major bridges/tunnels within the five boroughs have tolls on them. These include the Verrazano Narrows Bridge (Staten Island/Brooklyn), the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel (Brooklyn/Manhattan), the Queens Midtown Tunnel (Queens/Manhattan), the Throgs Neck and Whitestone Bridges (Queens/Manhattan), the Henry Hudson Bridge (Manhattan/Bronx), etc.

[Secret Agent Man]

thanks. it sounds like the majority of ways of or onto manhattan are toll bridges. a few non-toll bridges, but way more of them are toll bridges.

[musicman]

Help FR Continue the Conservative Fight!
Your Monthly and Quarterly Donations
Help Keep FR In the Battle!

Sponsoring FReepers are contributing
$10 Each time a New Monthly Donor signs up!
Get more bang for your FR buck!
Click Here To Sign Up Now!

[mdittmar]

“The Scofflaw”;)

[Alberta's Child]

It's probably close to a 50-50 split. There are a lot of small bridges along the Harlem River that you never hear about, and most of them have no toll. Here's a list of all the bridges over the Harlem River, which separates Manhattan from the Bronx:

RFK Bridge (TOLL)
Willis Avenue Bridge
Third Avenue Bridge
Madison Avenue Bridge
145th Street Bridge
Macombs Dam Bridge
High Bridge (currently closed for repairs)
Alexander Hamilton Bridge (no toll, but carries I-95 which has a toll at the Bronx/Connecticut border and on the George Washington Bridge to New Jersey)
Washington Bridge
University Heights Bridge
Broadway Bridge
Henry Hudson Bridge (TOLL)

[Secret Agent Man]

but are some of the non-toll ones in bad parts of town? like bad enough you’d rather take a toll bridge because it’d be significantly safer?

[gura]

Tolls? If you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying!

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

East River bridges are toll free, not the Triborough or Throgs Neck or Verrazano Narrows, and not the tunnels. Toll roads are often shorter or faster.

Passengers pay the tolls.

Cabbies often “deadhead” in from LAG or JFK, and always from Newark, where they do not have a license to operate. Often the Triboro will save time.

[Gigantor]

"Hahahaha! He was “thinking outside the box” like we always tell people to do."

Does it have to be a box? :D

[Alberta's Child]

Some of them are in bad parts of town, but those areas weren’t necessarily bad when the bridges were built. I suspect one big determining factor was that the non-toll bridges connect local streets instead of major roads, so there really wasn’t any room to build toll facilities.