Holy Cow! Now Cape May County, NJ, Bridge Tolls Might Double

If you're keeping track, we started this week learning that tolls on the Garden State Parkway and the New Jersey Turnpike would be increasing on January 1st.

The next day, news broke that tolls on the Atlantic City Expressway would also be going up in a few weeks.

And if you were thinking that was the end of the bad news, you'd be wrong.

There is now a plan being kicked around that would double tolls over the next few years on all of the bridges that link many of the shore towns in Cape May County.

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NJ.com was first to report that the Cape May County Bridge Commission wants to slowly increase tolls starting next year through 2024 on the five bridges between Longport and Cape May. Those bridges, with $1.50 tolls for cars now, would be $3.00 by '24.

The good news is -- unlike the increases on the three big toll roads -- you can actually make your voice heard about this proposal.

Through January 8th, you can:

• Mail your comments to the Cape May County Bridge Commission, 4 Moore Road, DN 3010, Cape May Court House, NJ 08210
• Drop-off a toll comment form at any of the five Ocean Drive bridges
• E-mail your comments to cmcbridgecommission@gmail.com

Note: anonymous comments will not be accepted. Please be sure to include your name and your hometown.

But before you send comments against this proposed increase, consider this for a moment. These are five bridges that link many of our shore towns together. Without them, imagine having to drive over to the Parkway every time you wanted to go one or two towns north or south. And many of these bridges are in highly corrosive environments -- especially the Townsends Inlet Bridge, which is exposed to the ocean. I'm not one for toll increases, especially in this state, but an increase of 50-cents a year to keep these bridges open might be a good investment for our region. I welcome your thoughts!