Garden State Parkway Adds $1.15 Toll at Bloomfield Service Area Exit

At the Connie Chung service area in Bloomfield, drivers can no longer slip through a once-free exit. The New Jersey Turnpike Authority closed this escape route after spotting a pattern of toll dodging on the Garden State Parkway's southbound stretch.

Motorists must now shell out $1.15 at Exit 151 Toll Plaza when departing the rest stop. "The Turnpike Authority did a traffic analysis and discovered that a large number of vehicles were leaving the southbound Parkway and cutting through the service area to exit onto Broad Street to avoid the toll," said Tom Feeney, according to Fox 5 NY.

Cars could freely come and go through the back entrance to Broad Street after August 2023's upgrades. Yet safety concerns pushed officials to block this path just three months later.

"That was not just a toll revenue issue but also a safety issue. The parking lot and driveway in the service area are not designed to serve as a Parkway exit ramp. The additional traffic put pedestrians at risk," Feeney said.

Local customers who popped in for quick bites at Chick-fil-A, Burger King, or Starbucks must now pay up at the toll booth before heading home.

"People use it as a backroads to get to the area that they live in. I guess it's not fair if you're going to use it to skip paying the tolls," said a local resident per Fox 5 NY.

Construction in August 2022 first unlocked the Broad Street gate. When the service area reopened in 2023 with its new access point, drivers quickly spotted and seized upon this toll-free shortcut.

While the exact amount of lost toll revenue stays under wraps, the fresh exit rules aim to push traffic back to the main Parkway routes. This change protects both the state's income and the safety of people walking through the service area.