Free trips over

Verrazzano switch to 2-way tolls

The one-way toll on the Verrazzano Bridge will be halved and charged in both directions starting Dec. 1, MTA officials announced Monday.

Drivers who use the Brooklyn-Staten Island span will pay $6.12 each way with an E-ZPass, instead of the current $12.24 to enter Staten Island, but will no longer have a free ride to Brooklyn.

Staten Island residents will pay $2.75 both ways, and cars without an E-ZPass will be hit with a $9.50 toll by mail.

The change comes 34 years after Congress passed a law that eliminated tollbooths on the Staten Island end of the bridge — which was a win for residents of the borough who were sick of long lines of honking motorists waiting to cross.

Since then, drivers have paid double the toll to travel from Brooklyn to Staten Island on the bridge, but have been given free passage the other way.

While the change reduced congestion, it also created a new problem that stretched far beyond the city’s most southern borough.

Truck and car drivers who commute to or from New Jersey figured they could save money by using the bridge’s free Brooklyn-bound crossing, traveling across a free East River bridge and then taking the Holland or Lincoln Tunnel across the Hudson River, which only require tolls from New York-bound motorists.

The practice, dubbed “bridge shopping,” ended up causing more traffic congestion on Staten Island.

Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials estimated the one-way toll put roughly 7,000 additional cars on Staten Island roads each weekday before the pandemic.

“The restoration of split tolling will end a 30-year loophole in New York City that will help alleviate congestion on Staten Island while improving the environment,” said MTA Chairman Patrick Foye.

The Brooklyn-bound toll on the Verrazzano will cost the same as the Battery and Midtown tunnels, as well as other MTA-run bridges like the Triborough.

The MTA in 2017 eliminated cash payments at all of its bridges and tunnels and began requiring drivers to have an E-ZPass or pay a pricier toll by mail.

That advancement sped up the flow of traffic — and nixed the risk of lines of cars on Staten Island.

The change back to two-way tolling was accomplished through a new bill passed in Congress last year that was sponsored by firstterm Rep. Max Rose (D-S.I.), who as of Monday trailed his Republican challenger Nicole Malliotakis by more than 35,000 votes in his reelection bid.

“I promised to do everything I can to end my constituents’ commuting nightmare, and with split tolling we’ll see fewer outof-state cars and trucks clogging up our expressway at no cost to residents,” Rose said.