Toll Revenues Down; Albuterol Makers Hardest Hit

I’m hoping this means we can stop worrying about traffic congestion and asthma rates until at least the third quarter of 2009:

A traffic recession is triggering a precipitous drop at the MTA’s crossings, costing the cash-strapped agency a staggering $55 million a year in tolls, statistics show.

“In the last three months, we’ve seen a large drop. That period is when the economy got especially bad,” Dave Moretti, an executive with MTA Bridges and Tunnels, recently told an agency board committee.

Even slumping gas prices aren’t helping, he added, calling the cheaper fuel “questionable as to how much of a stimulus it provides” in boosting traffic and tolls.