[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2582 Introduced in House (IH)]







106th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2582

 To eliminate a limitation with respect to the collection of tolls for 
             use of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, New York.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             July 21, 1999

  Mr. Nadler introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
             Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To eliminate a limitation with respect to the collection of tolls for 
             use of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, New York.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds that--
            (1) the neighborhoods of Soho, Tribeca, Greenwich Village, 
        Chinatown, the Lower East Side, and Lower Manhattan in New York 
        County and Bay Ridge, Sunset Park, Boerum Hill, Red Hook, 
        Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, Brooklyn Heights, and downtown 
        Brooklyn in Kings County, New York, have suffered adversely 
        from the significant increase in oversize truck and other 
        commercial vehicular traffic;
            (2) trucks and commercial vehicles--
                    (A) in order to avoid tolls at other New York and 
                New Jersey crossings, use the Verrazano Narrows Bridge 
                route to enter New York City; and
                    (B) in order to avoid tolls to enter New York City 
                and avoid the high cost of the one way toll on the 
                Verrazano Narrows Bridge, use Canal Street and the 
                Holland Tunnel when heading eastbound out of New York 
                City;
            (3) the increase in truck traffic has resulted in extremely 
        dangerous conditions for pedestrians in the communities 
        referred to in paragraph (1), including a high number of 
        fatalities;
            (4) the resultant increase in oversized commercial 
        vehicles' diesel particulate matter frequently exceed Federal 
        clean air standards, diminishing the air quality for residents 
        in such communities;
            (5) since the use of intelligent transportation systems 
        such as EZ-Pass at the Verrazano Narrows Bridge and all 
        facilities owned by the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority 
        and the Metropolitan Transit Authority has been a great success 
        in reducing congestion, pollution, and waiting time at toll 
        facilities, it would not adversely impact air pollution by 
        reinstituting the collection of tolls in both directions on the 
        Verrazano Narrows Bridge; and
            (6) the Metropolitan Transit Authority bridges and tunnels 
        suffer a loss in revenue of $10,000,000 annually and over 
        $100,000,000 over the last 10 years since the toll has been one 
        way on the Verrazano Narrows Bridge.

SEC. 2. REPEAL OF LIMITATION.

    Section 325 of the Department of Transportation and Related 
Agencies Appropriations Act, 1996 (109 Stat. 456) is repealed.

SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS.

    It is the sense of Congress that the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel 
Authority and the Metropolitan Transit Authority should implement hi-
speed EZ-Pass in the collection of tolls on the Verrazano Narrows 
Bridge to ensure air quality standards are met and to reduce congestion 
at the Bridge.
                                 <all>