The New York State Thruway Authority wants to raise $90 million per year by raising truck tolls. The hike would increase the toll for a three axle truck traveling between Buffalo and New York City from $88-$127 per trip. Wow. Today they’re having a hearing at the Buffalo and Erie County Library, across from my office. The Authority will have substantial opposition.
The authority claims trucks cause 10,000 times the wear and tear of passenger vehicles. Not sure how they came up with that statistic. Many smaller trucking companies and owner operators are feeling the pinch already. We usually write about safety issues; if somehow an increase would improve road safety both for truckers and other Thruway users, we would be for it.
The Thruway Authority has big management and overhead. It should reduce it’s the management expense and put more construction workers on-the job repairing the roads. Tolls for trucks were already raised 35% and 2005 and 5% in 2009 and in 2010.
Raising the toll for truckers will force some to take alternative routes causing the authority to lose income and currently receives and causing reduce spending by truckers along Thruway. The authority has been raising money and not putting it back into road work for far too long.
