Weigh Full Automation
MTA Bridge Union: Bell Not Tolling Yet

By ARI PAUL

While toll collectors at Metropolitan Transportation Authority bridges and tunnels may be replaced by an electronic tolling system, their union leader remains unafraid - for now.

JOE MAURO: Questions plan's viability.

"They're going to do a study," said Bridge and Tunnel Officers Benevolent Association President Joe Mauro in a March 6 phone interview. "I don't know what that means. They've done studies on a lot of things, but that doesn't mean it comes to pass."

Drive Now, Pay Later?

He had been informed before MTA Executive Director and CEO Elliot Sander's "State of the MTA" address March 3 that the authority was considering a video system that would record license numbers and bill drivers who do not use the E-Z Pass system.

Mr. Mauro doubted that such a system would better serve the MTA.

"If you drive through a toll, who's going to be collecting tolls from these people?" he asked.

Noting that the MTA had been considering the plan for a while, City Council Transportation Committee Chairman John Liu said that more unmanned tolling was inevitable.

"The systems are not going to be perfected for a long time, so some human presence is still going to be needed for the foreseeable future," he said. "And the reality is any time this kind of technology is introduced, it creates new jobs that will then need to be filled."

William Anderson, a professor at the Center for Transportation Studies at Boston University, said that there are systems similar to the one the MTA will study in London and Toronto.

Succeeded Elsewhere

"It's one of those technologies where it almost sounds like it wouldn't work, but it seems to be working in a few applications," he said. "I suppose it would be hard to catch up with out-of-state people and things like that."

Mr. Mauro represents nearly 700 officers at the MTA's Bridge and Tunnel Authority, and acknowledged that even though it was too early to brace for job losses, the implementation of the proposed system was a possibility.

"Would we like that? Obviously not," he said. "We'll still be patrolling the bridges. It's not like we would become extinct."