And It’s Not Even A Good-Looking Suspension Bridge . . .

It’s that time of year again when Queens residents start to question why they have to pay a toll for that dumpy old bridge:

Leisure-seekers who make getaways to Rockaway’s beaches and parks get burned by more than the sun with each trip they make south.

Motorists have to pay $2.25 each time they travel across the Cross Bay Veterans Memorial Bridge, the city’s only tolled intra-borough crossing.

“It’s ridiculous,” said Kevin Mellett of Briarwood, who comes to the beach almost every day before his evening bartending shift begins. “Why should we have to pay to come to our beach?”

The fee seems unnecessary to Mary Klein, Mellett’s friend and co-worker, as well. “Especially in the summer, when everyone comes to the beach, they shouldn’t be taking advantage of people.”

After E-ZPass discounts, which bring the toll down to $1.50 for each crossing, Mellett estimated that he pays about $100 a season to cross the Cross Bay Veterans Memorial Bridge. On their way to and from the Rockaways, Mellett and Klein cross the Addabbo Memorial Bridge without having to pay a fee. Approximately 7.5 million vehicles crossed the bridges in 2006, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

“It’s completely outrageous,” said Howard Beach’s Tom Veranda on Riis Park’s pitch and putt golf course on Friday. “To pay to go from Howard Beach to Broad Channel to Rockaway, it’s all Cross Bay (Boulevard). Nobody should have to be pay that (toll).”

Digna Roldon, a Sunnyside woman who sells Italian ices from a cart she pushes along the shore three or four days a week, said the tolls hurt business. Some Queens beach-goers say that when they anticipate heavy traffic on Cross Bay Boulevard, they simply get on the Grand Central Parkway and drive east toward Jones Beach on Long Island.

. . .

Addabbo said that eliminating tolls through the fall and winter would spur business in Rockaway. He added that some developers have, in the past, believed that Rockaway’s shopping base alone does not warrant an investment there and that many in South Queens will refuse to pay a toll to simply buy a pair of shoes or see a movie.

Businesses in Rockaway already have to pay surcharges on deliveries and both Addabbo and Assemblywoman Audrey Pheffer (D-Ozone Park) have offices in Rockaway and on the mainland so that none of their constituents will have to pay a fee to visit them.

“It’s simply an unfair tax,” Pheffer said. “It’s like putting a toll in the middle of Queens Boulevard.” Pheffer knows of teachers who live in communities such as Ozone Park who refuse to take assignments in Rockaway, the same school district they are zoned for, because of what could become a tax of over $20 a week.

Congestion pricing should be easy to work out.