Commuters frustrated with 3% toll increase on New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway
MOUNT LAUREL, N.J. (CBS) -- If you drove on the New Jersey Turnpike or the Garden State Parkway on Friday, you might have noticed toll prices went up.
March 1 marked the first day drivers had to pay a 3% toll increase on some New Jersey highways leaving some commuters frustrated.
"I'm not happy about it," a driver coming from New York told CBS News Philadelphia Friday afternoon.
"I think it was very high over the past couple of years and it's gone up over the years," Brenda Ables said.
Drivers can expect to pay an average of 15 cents more when on the New Jersey Turnpike and 5 cents more on the Garden State Parkway.
According to New Jersey Turnpike Authority officials, the extra money is meant to go toward maintaining highways and funding mass transit.
It's the third increase in the last four years on the two highways, but not all tolls are going up.
The cost of crossing the four Delaware River Port Authority bridges has remained at $5 for the 13th consecutive year.
"We did put in place an automatic toll increase based on CPI back in 2011 and we've put it off every year since then," Delaware River Port Authority CEO John Hanson said. "Most recently we delayed it until April 1."
Hanson hopes to continue delaying an increase until July, but there is a possibility a toll hike could come sometime in the future in order to pay for maintenance on all four bridges.
"We are getting closer to thinking we are going to need some type of revenue enhancement to carry out our mission," Hanson said.
For now, the DRPA said it's too early to tell when a toll hike would come and how much it would cost drivers.
