Some One Needs To Learn Shunpiking

[ShawnP]

http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2011/07/port_authority_brands_staten_i.html

[1995hoo]

There is no good way to "shunpike" if you live on Staten Island. You can LEAVE the island for free, but there is no way to drive onto the island without paying a toll unless you take the absurd step of buying yourself a very large boat and ferrying your car to New Jersey. All four bridges that connect to Staten Island (Goethals, Outer, Bayonne, and Verrazano) are tolled upon entry to the island.

[Michael in Philly]

There is no good way to "shunpike" if you live on Staten Island. You can LEAVE the island for free, but there is no way to drive onto the island without paying a toll unless you take the absurd step of buying yourself a very large boat and ferrying your car to New Jersey. All four bridges that connect to Staten Island (Goethals, Outer, Bayonne, and Verrazano) are tolled upon entry to the island.

Fixed it for you.  :-)
Seriously, both my parents grew up on Staten Island and some relatives still live there.  This is a major, major issue there.
(And a tiny correction:  the Outerbridge Crossing, remarkably, is named after someone whose last name was Outerbridge.  Hence the "Crossing," which is not redundant; and it therefore can't be shortened to "Outer.")

[1995hoo]

There is no good way to "shunpike" if you live on Staten Island. You can LEAVE the island for free, but there is no way to drive onto the island without paying a toll unless you take the absurd step of buying yourself a very large boat and ferrying your car to New Jersey. All four bridges that connect to Staten Island (Goethals, Outer, Bayonne, and Verrazano) are tolled upon entry to the island.

Fixed it for you.  :-)
Seriously, both my parents grew up on Staten Island and some relatives still live there.  This is a major, major issue there.
(And a tiny correction:  the Outerbridge Crossing, remarkably, is named after someone whose last name was Outerbridge.  Hence the "Crossing," which is not redundant; and it therefore can't be shortened to "Outer.")

I was being slightly cynical when I said "good" because I was leaving the door open to utterly ridiculous examples like the one I gave. But you're right, otherwise there is no way to do it. When I was growing up my grandparents lived in Bay Ridge and one aunt and her two kids lived on Staten Island (Adams Avenue), so I'm definitely familiar with how much of a problem this issue is for people there, no doubt made even worse now that you can't take your car on the Staten Island Ferry as a potential lower-priced alternative to the bridges. (My grandparents have all died and my aunts now live in Breezy Point and Roxbury.)

Also, I know the origin of Outerbridge, but we never cared and we always called it the "Outer," regardless of whether it's right or wrong, and so I was feeling lazy and typed it that way. (I believe I recall my grandfather saying it's a Dutch name that should be pronounced more like "ooterbridge," i.e., like the stereotyped Canadian pronunciation of "about" as "aboot," but everyone looks at you funny if you say "ooterbridge.")

[NE2]

Sure, you can enter the island for free. Just not by motor vehicle.