The weird thing about crossing into Manhattan is that the tolls vary from entrance to entrance.
Crossing the Brooklyn Bridge is free. Crossing the George Washington Bridge is $14.
You can see a full table of rates from the Port Authority right here, but the general lay of the land is it costs a bunch to cross into NYC from New Jersey and the rest of the country, but it’s free from Brooklyn and lower Queens. Staten Island is even more expensive, which is why you see shipping trucks from Long Island routing through Chinatown on their way to NJ to dodge the Verrazano Bridge.
So let’s play a little game. Let’s say you’re somewhere in Northern New Jersey and you want to go into Manhattan. What’s the cheapest way in? To make everyone think on the same lines, let’s all say we start at the same town. Let’s pick one with a silly name. How about Ho-Ho-Kus? That sounds great.
Now, to avoid talking about how much gas costs to go way out of your way to dodge a bridge or tunnel toll, let’s say that we’re all driving Teslas.
And to avoid having to talk about how much our time is worth, let’s all say we’re unemployed.
So if you’re an unemployed Tesla driver living in Ho-Ho-Kus, what’s the cheapest (if more pointlessly complicated) way into Manhattan?
Photo Credit: Getty Images (the still-free Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges pictured)
Contact the author at raphael@jalopnik.com.