Deadbeat drivers left nearly $350 million in tolls unpaid in 2025 — more than double the annual total from three years earlier, a new MTA analysis estimated.
The staggering figure comes after the Metropolitan Transportation Authority adopted a “cashless” system — with officials now looking for the state to pass legislation that would take extreme measures in some cases, like allow the agency to put liens on the property or bank accounts of scofflaws.
“Preliminary data for 2025 indicate that upward trend has continued, and interventions adopted in 2024 have not gone far enough to mitigate impacts of persistent toll violators,” the analysis states, which was first reported by Streetsblog.
The analysis showed figures surging from $147 million in 2022, with obscured license plates and repeat offenders ignoring their mail notices possibly driving contributing the massive growth.
Unpaid tolls totaled $202 million in 2024 and $187 million in 2023, according to the MTA.
The increase from 2024 to 2025 — about $148 million — is about 10 times the $15 million year-over-year rise between 2023 and 2024. The surge came just New York launched a controversial new congestion toll program that charges drivers entering Midtown Manhattan.
But at a Bridges and Tunnels committee meeting Monday, MTA officials took aim at drivers blocking their plates from toll cameras.
Summonses issued to “persistent toll violators” rose 42% percent in 2025 compared to 2024, with about 29,000 summonses issued last year, according to Edwin King, executive vice president of the MTA’s Bridges and Tunnels division.
The MTA defines a persistent toll violator as a driver who receives three separate violations within five years.
There were around 5,700 persistent toll violators last year, an increase of 30% compared to the year before, according to King.
Scofflaws also jacked up the value of unpaid tolls by using “ghost plates” or intentionally obscured or altered license plates to avoid toll cameras.
The MTA launched a multi-agency, regional task force to combat that persistent problem in March 2024. The effort has produced 75,000 summonses, 7,000 towed vehicles and 1,700 arrests, targeting drivers who collectively owe more than $66 million, according to Cathy Sheridan, president of MTA Bridges and Tunnels.
Still, officials said Monday they cannot close the gap without more help from Albany.
Lawmakers already approved a measure last year to increase financial penalties for covered license plates and to crack down on the sale of products that block license plates.
A new proposal under consideration by state lawmakers would also allow police to immediately remove illegal plate covers and add points to a driver’s record for repeated plate violations.
It would expand the MTA’s power to collect unpaid tolls by allowing the the authority to use liens once the toll debt becomes a court judgment, similar to other unpaid bills that end up in court.
The proposal would also make toll evasion a criminal offense classified as theft of service and prevent drivers from reregistering vehicles under someone else’s name to avoid penalties.
“None of these proposals target the everyday driver who accidentally misses a toll,” the agency’s analysis said. “This is about closing the gap on intentional, repeated bad behavior.”
