3 times now since October I've told friends just to park in Newport and take either the 33rd/WTC line in. 

And each time, they have spent every penny they saved on local business, drinking until late at night and knowing they didn't have to worry about their cars. 

Just wanted to throw that out there. 

Local to Newport, or local to NYC?

Maybe they should raise Larry Silverstein's rent

I guess now it is time to raise the PATH fare

PATH fare was raised in Sept. to $2 per ride. 

Raise it again, that will teach those crazy people avoiding the $12 tolls

That's actually part of the plan - 25 cents every year for the next 4 years, until it's $2.75. Glad your wish came true?

wonderful!

This is a good thing. But I'm sure the PA still has plans to waste that increased revenue.

If by lengthening the PATH platforms to accomodate 10 car trains, rebuilding the Harrison Station, upgrading the PATH signal system, lifting the Bayonne Bridge to allow post-Panamax ships access to the port, and building a new Goethals Bridge, then yes, they will be wasting the increased revenue.

This is a good thing right. Less cars. Less traffic. I thought you bike lovers would dig that. Now if I can just get residential parking permits in my neighborhood in BKLN so people from LI stop  using us as their parking lot, I'd be really happy!

The implied mitigation of 'good news', I don't get. This is win-win all around, except for those who think driving into the city is a more important subsidy than having a less-expensive mass-transit channel perform the same role.  Change-grumbling and car-culture aside, this is evidence that people, when put to a real test, people change their driving behavior in response to price signals. That the PA (evil bastards that they have been in the past) is making more money shows demand hasn't gone away, and maybe signals a sea change in their bridge- and tunnel-addicted thinking.  Seriously, who builds a subway system at a different tunnel size than the MTA uses out of spite?

Not so much out of spite, but out of older, different planning - the H&M Tubes, as they were known, were planned even before NYC's first trains, the IRT.  Even within the MTA, there are different sized/shaped tunnels (IRT/BMT), and different length platforms.  What is now collectively known as the MTA's Subway was really patched together from several earlier companies attempts at mass transit.

Although, I certainly wouldn't mind bigger PATH trains in the morning...

So more people are riding mass transit and more people are using EZ-Pass, a collection system literally 3 times more efficient than a standard toll collector. The result means fewer cars in Manhattan, lower total emissions, and better efficiency around the region's roads all while raising money for infrastructure improvements like increasing PATH capacity and raising the Bayonne Bridge. Sounds like a winning public policy.  

And mostly for rebuilding the WTC.

The Port Authority's mandate, as per the founding the charter, is economic development and investment within 25 miles of the Statue of Liberty. Building offices in Lower Manhattan certainly fits that profile. 

However, to suggest that toll money is going anywhere near the World Trade Center simply demonstrates your ignorance to the Port Authority's funding. Most of the revenue is coming from port and airport rents, not tolls or transit fares. 

Except for those poor souls who live or work in Brooklyn, Queens, Nassau and Suffolk who need their car to drive back home or to work in New Jersey

Combine these toll increases with the increases on the the Verranzano Bridge, and you will find that commerce between these two regions and into and through Staten Island has declined considerably.

For myself who lives in south Brooklyn, I no longer take the Verranzano into Staten Island for any reason.  If I need to go into New Jersey, I'll time my trip early or late in the day to take the Holland Tunnel.

The Verranzano is not owned or operated by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. 

That's true, but my point related to the overall cost of travel between points.

The tolls collected at the bridges operated by the MTA subsidize the buses and subways.  The wider story should include a discussion about whether these subsidys are fair.  If all the cars disappear from the roads, should the bus fare remain at $2.50 or should it rise to the real cost of providing the service.  Same could be said for the Post Office once upon a time.

Of course if you use subsidized services, your answer is yes because it always feels better when you get somebody else to pay for your stuff.

What you say might have some merit if roadways weren't being subsidized by federal income taxpayers and to a lesser extent state income and sales taxes.