Garden State Parkway

WOODBRIDGE, N.J. - Violations have dropped from 9 percent to 3 percent since photo enforcement began targeting toll cheats in the exact-change lanes of the Garden State Parkway. Enforcement began in October, when authorities doubled the violation fee to $50. Officials had collected about $347,000 in tolls and administrative fees as of Monday. Turnpike Authority spokesman Thomas Feeney told New Jersey Press Media that officials had waived 10,551 of the 87,120 violation notices issued as of this week.

KENILWORTH, N.J. - State police say a woman trying to walk across the Garden State Parkway in northern New Jersey was struck and killed by a car. The woman, whose name was not released, was struck early Saturday near Mile Marker 140 in Kenilworth. Officials say the driver was unable to avoid the woman. It is unclear why the woman was trying to cross the highway. State police say no unaccompanied vehicles were found nearby, so it is unlikely that she had been driving there before the accident.

New Jersey is temporarily suspending tolls on the Atlantic City Expressway and all parts of the Garden State Parkway south of the Raritan River as of 8 a.m. Friday. The move is an attempt to speed evacuation from the shore. Also at 6 p.m. Friday, Routes 47 and 347 in Cape May County will be closed to eastbound traffic and all lanes will be opened to westbound traffic only. In statement, Gov. Christie's office said, "As part of this process, all ramps will be tightly controlled and additional personnel will be used to ensure safety.

Annoyed at frequent backups at Garden State Parkway tollbooths? Tired of stopping every 20 minutes to toss 35 cents into a basket? Who isn't? Would you like to see tolls eliminated? You bet. What's not to like about a free highway? That kind of simplistic exchange is spawning feel-good plans to get rid of parkway tolls - as quickly as next year under Republican gubernatorial candidate Bret Schundler's pie-in-the-sky plan. The financial charts in a Department of Transportation report commissioned by acting Gov. Donald T. DiFrancesco offer a more sobering scenario: This is no free ride.

All twenty-three people, mostly senior citizens aboard a casino bus, were injured when it skidded and overturned yesterday afternoon on the Garden State Parkway en route from the Bronx to Trump Castle in Atlantic City. Police said there were no reported fatalities. The accident occurred at 2:15 p.m. in the southbound lanes near Exit 50, about 20 miles outside Atlantic City, police said. Rescue workers spent more than an hour and a half extricating victims from the bus while passengers screamed and yelled, authorities said.

When Richard Miller stands in his Egg Harbor Township backyard - five miles from the nearest beach - he swears he can hear soothing ocean waves. At least until the roar of the engine brake from an 18-wheeler on the northbound lanes of the Garden State Parkway spoils the illusion. "When I hear the big trucks, then I know I'm living close to the parkway. But most of the time the traffic, to me, sounds like waves," says Miller, a computer analyst who moved six years ago from Pennsauken to this Atlantic County municipality to be closer to Ocean City's beaches.

Two buses - one heading to Atlantic City and another returning from the resort town - were involved in weather-related accidents yesterday that injured more than 70 people. A tour bus trying to avoid a snowplow crashed into a guardrail on the Blue Route in Montgomery County, injuring more than 30 people. And in an earlier accident, a bus flipped onto its side in ice and snow on the Garden State Parkway about 60 miles north of Atlantic City, with injuries to 42 passengers. The rain that changed to snow also played a role in other minor car wrecks, but most of the region seemed to take the weather in stride.

An Atlantic City casino bus that was weaving in and out of traffic overturned in the falling snow on the Garden State Parkway yesterday, killing two passengers and injuring 28 others, authorities said. State police were questioning the driver of the bus, which was en route from Chinatown in New York to the Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort when the crash occurred about noon at milepost 63.7 in Ocean County. "He was driving erratically, in and out of traffic," said Timothy McDonough, the parkway agency's executive director.

With good reason, it's called the Garden State Parkway. From the hilly reaches of North Jersey, through the fragrant forests of the Pine Barrens, down to the coastal plains of the Jersey Shore, this 173-mile ribbon of asphalt not only speeds drivers to their destinations, but takes them through a garden of flowering trees, blooming wildflowers and lush forests. All for the price of the toll. So verdant is the parkway that it has been designated one of the East Coast's most important flyways for migratory birds, according to Rich Kane, vice president of conservation and stewardship for the New Jersey Audubon Society.

BARNEGAT, N.J. - State police said that an elderly man driving a pickup truck with its headlights off was killed when it collided with another vehicle on the Garden State Parkway. Four other people were hospitalized after the crash, which occurred about 2:45 a.m. yesterday in the northbound lanes near Exit 67 in Barnegat. Troopers said that Robert Pestridge Jr., 87, of Middle Township, was trying to cross into the center lane when he collided with a car driven by Stuart Markowitz, 48, of Marlboro.

WOODBRIDGE, N.J. - Violations have dropped from 9 percent to 3 percent since photo enforcement began targeting toll cheats in the exact-change lanes of the Garden State Parkway. Enforcement began in October, when authorities doubled the violation fee to $50. Officials had collected about $347,000 in tolls and administrative fees as of Monday. Turnpike Authority spokesman Thomas Feeney told New Jersey Press Media that officials had waived 10,551 of the 87,120 violation notices issued as of this week.

KENILWORTH, N.J. - State police say a woman trying to walk across the Garden State Parkway in northern New Jersey was struck and killed by a car. The woman, whose name was not released, was struck early Saturday near Mile Marker 140 in Kenilworth. Officials say the driver was unable to avoid the woman. It is unclear why the woman was trying to cross the highway. State police say no unaccompanied vehicles were found nearby, so it is unlikely that she had been driving there before the accident.

NEWARK, N.J. - The new year will bring something that's become old hat for New Jersey residents: more costs associated with driving. For the second time in three years, toll rates will rise on the New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway. The latest increases go into effect on New Year's Day and compute to about 50 percent on both highways. They come just four months after the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey raised toll rates on bridges and tunnels into New York by 50 percent and five months after the Delaware River Port Authority increased tolls into Philadelphia by 25 percent.

State police in New Jersey said a man involved in a two-vehicle crash early Sunday on the Garden State Parkway was killed when he left his car to check on the other driver and was struck by another vehicle. John Key, 37, of Long Branch, apparently was involved in the crash, which occurred shortly after 2 a.m. near northbound milepost 98.4 in Wall Township. Police said Key parked on the shoulder and ran across four lanes to check on the other driver. When Key tried to return to his vehicle, he was struck by a blue Mercedes.

New Jersey is temporarily suspending tolls on the Atlantic City Expressway and all parts of the Garden State Parkway south of the Raritan River as of 8 a.m. Friday. The move is an attempt to speed evacuation from the shore. Also at 6 p.m. Friday, Routes 47 and 347 in Cape May County will be closed to eastbound traffic and all lanes will be opened to westbound traffic only. In statement, Gov. Christie's office said, "As part of this process, all ramps will be tightly controlled and additional personnel will be used to ensure safety.

Although E-ZPass transponders look alike, they can take their toll on motorists' bank accounts in very different ways. A confounding array of 24 toll-road and bridge agencies in 14 states have their own rules, charges, and discounts, even though they all operate under the umbrella of "E-ZPass. " And the disparities will increase on Friday. That's when the New Jersey Turnpike Authority will abolish discounts for drivers who don't get their E-ZPass devices through the New Jersey E-ZPass system.

By the end of the summer, the party could be over for toll cheats on the Garden State Parkway. Automatic cameras would photograph the license plates of drivers who don't pay at exact-change lanes, and vehicle owners would be sent a bill for the toll plus a $50 fee - double the current fine - under regulations proposed by the New Jersey Turnpike Authority. Motorists who find themselves without correct change now are supposed to use envelopes available at the toll booths to mail in their tolls.

Sunoco Inc. has solidified its position as the King of the Toll Road. The Philadelphia refiner will take over operations of nine fuel outlets along the Garden State Parkway, the only toll road in the region whose service stations were not already under Sunoco's control. Sunoco announced Monday that it had reached an agreement with the New Jersey Turnpike Authority, which manages the 172-mile parkway, and Getty Petroleum Marketing Inc., the current service station operator. The six-year agreement runs through the end of December 2016.

LITTLE EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP, N.J. - Some people say it's the work of a "Secret Santa," an exuberant Kris Kringle determined to create an annual Christmas tradition on a lonely stretch of the Garden State Parkway. Others say the mystery of just who has been decorating a particular tall pine along the southbound toll road near Mile Marker 58.2 is just another odd Garden State roadside attraction. Whoever is doing it - and why - the annual ritual near the Tuckerton exit began overnight Monday.