Download a printable version of the Thruway Fact Book (PDF, 17 pages/161 Kb)

Contact Information

http://www.nysthruway.gov
http://www.nyscanals.gov
http://www.tzbsite.com
http://www.e-zpassny.com

Return to Contents

Introduction

The Thruway Authority Act of 1950 provided geographical names for each of the Thruway’s sections. These include Southern Westchester, Hudson, Catskill, Mohawk, Ontario, Erie, Berkshire, New England and Niagara. Subsequent legislation named these sections for old Native American trails: the Iroquois Trail (between New York City and Buffalo), the Erie Path (between Buffalo and the Pennsylvania border), the Mohican Path (the New England Section in Bronx and Westchester Counties), the Algonquin Path (the Berkshire Section in Albany, Rensselaer and Columbia Counties) and the Tuscarora Path (the Niagara Section in Erie and Niagara Counties).

In 1964, the New York State Legislature mandated that the Thruway System be named “The Governor Thomas E. Dewey Thruway,” recognizing the former Governor’s vision and leadership in sponsoring the creation of the cross-state superhighway.

Return to Contents

*Maintained by the Authority, under contract with DOT

Return to Contents

Return to Contents

Design Criteria

• The Thruway is generally a four-lane express highway with two lanes for traffic in either direction, separated by a wide median that ranges up to 1,025 feet in width. Six lanes are available in several higher-traffic regions, as are eight lanes.
• To the right of all highway areas is a stabilized shoulder on which vehicles, including the heaviest trucks, may be parked in the case of a breakdown or other emergency.
• There are no intersections at grade, no sharp curves and no steep hills on the Thruway.
• There are acceleration and deceleration lanes, generally 1,200 feet long, at all interchanges, Travel Plazas and parking areas.
• Sight distance of at least 1,000 feet is provided to eliminate any blind spots for fast-traveling motorists.
• Signs and/or advertising devices may not be posted or maintained within 660 feet of the nearest edge of the right-of-way, except with specific permission from the Thruway Authority.

Return to Contents

Expressway Connections

The Thruway is a key segment in the vast expressway network in the Northeast. The Thruway connects with:

• The Major Deegan Expressway at the New York City line, giving direct access south to midtown New York City.
• The Connecticut Turnpike at the terminus of the Thruway's New England Section (I-95) in Port Chester.
• The Massachusetts Turnpike at the terminus of the Thruway's Berkshire Section (I-90) in the Town of Canaan.
• Interstate 90, which heads west across the United States.
• New Jersey’s Garden State Parkway at the New Jersey- New York line in Chestnut Ridge, Rockland County.
• Interstate 287, near Suffern in northern Rockland County, connecting with major highways in New Jersey.
• The Adirondack Northway, the northernmost segment of Interstate 87, which extends from Albany north to the Canadian border.
• Interstate 81, which extends from the Pennsylvania line near Binghamton north through Syracuse to the St. Lawrence River and Canada near Alexandria Bay.
• Interstate 88, near Schenectady on the Thruway, extends to Binghamton.

Return to Contents

Construction Cost

The Thruway cost about $1 billion to build. Costs were relatively low through upstate farmland and higher in heavily populated areas. The cost per mile from New York City to the Pennsylvania line was $1,547,000; with the exception of the 15-mile New England Section, which cost an average of $6,210,000 per mile; and the 21-mile Niagara Section, which cost an average of $5,738,000 per mile.

Return to Contents

Travel Plazas

The Thruway’s 27 Travel Plazas, many of them award-winning facilities, offer a variety of restaurants and other services designed to serve Thruway visitors for years to come.

The Travel Plazas are fun and memorable places to stop, with buildings reflecting New York State architecture such as Adirondack lodges, Shaker meeting halls and Hudson River Valley train stations. The Thruway Travel Plazas offer a wide variety of food as well as competitive fuel prices. In addition, Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) are available, as are tourist information centers and kiosks, gift shops, Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi), travel safety information, and up-to-date weather and traffic conditions.

All of the Travel Plazas offer family-assist restrooms, allowing people with special needs to get help from a traveling companion in total privacy. Travel Plazas are now fully accessible to travelers with special needs. Also, parents will find diaper changing areas in both men’s and women’s restrooms.

Return to Contents

Tourism Information Centers

Staffed tourism information centers are located at several Travel Plazas and interchanges along the Thruway System. At these centers, Thruway travelers may obtain literature about destinations and attractions in New York State, Thruway maps and directional assistance. Some information centers operate all year; others are seasonal. All information centers at Travel Plazas operate daily from May 1 to October 31, some longer. Highway signs showing "?" and/or "Tourist Info" legends are posted along the Thruway for information centers that are open eight hours a day, seven days a week at Travel Plazas, interchanges or within one mile of a Thruway interchange. View a list of Travel Plaza Tourism Information Centers.

Return to Contents

Traffic Regulations and Emergency Service

• Posted speed limits are enforced by State Police Troop T, whose members patrol the Thruway exclusively.
• U-turns are prohibited, except when authorized by State Police or Thruway personnel.
• Do not park in driving lanes, on or under bridges, or in the center median.
• Do not pick up hitchhikers. Both hitchhikers and motorists picking them up are subject to arrest, as New York State law prohibits hitchhiking.
• Pedestrians, bicycles, motor scooters, ATVs, horse-drawn vehicles, snowmobiles and mopeds are all prohibited on the Thruway.
• Keep right except for passing and signal before changing lanes.
• Trucks, buses and vehicles hauling trailers are barred from the left lane on three-lane sections.
• Trucks traveling less than 40 miles per hour must use their flashing lights to warn other vehicles of their slower speed.
• New York State law requires seat belt use and that headlights be turned on when windshield wipers are used.
• Do not stop in the travel lanes with a disabled vehicle. Move well off the roadway, or to the next exit or other safe location. New York State law permits motorists to move vehicles to a safe spot following an accident or breakdown. For your own safety, stay with your vehicle until help arrives. It is illegal to walk along the Thruway.
• For the safety of all Thruway travelers, only authorized Thruway contract garages are allowed to service disabled vehicles on the Thruway. Minor repairs include tire changes, battery boosts, and supplying fuel, oil, water and/or anti-freeze. Thruway fuel stations no longer offer this roadside service.
• Authorized off-Thruway garages handle towing and major repairs that cannot be done along the Thruway. They also provide both roadside and major repairs on the Niagara, New England, I-84 and I-287 sections.
• A standard roadside service charge prevails 24 hours a day on the Thruway. Labor and materials are additional. These rates are comparable to off-Thruway rates.
• Towing charges by authorized garages for towing are based on initial hook-up and subsequent miles towed and are competitive with off-Thruway prices.

Return to Contents

Road Condition Reports

Thruway road condition reports are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week by calling toll-free 1-800-THRUWAY (1-800-847-8929). Reports are updated as conditions change along the 641-mile superhighway.

Return to Contents

TRANSystem

In August 2006 the Authority launched the Transportation Regional Advisory Network System (TRANSystem). This free* network of services provides motorists a combination of current and plan-ahead traveler information is delivered through a variety of mechanisms, including for the first time on the Thruway, email alerts (TRANSalerts).   The TRANSystem has been designed to provide customers with real-time traffic, weather, construction and emergency information.

Thruway patrons can sign up to receive TRANSalerts via e-mail or text message. The service also offers a “hold” feature which allows commuters to suspend the alerts while on vacation or allow the occasional traveler to only receive alerts when planning and/or taking a trip.

In addition, the TRANSystem provides current, up-to-date traffic and traveler information including unscheduled construction and emergency information on the Authority’s homepage. The Authority continues to post emergency information on the Highway Advisory Radio (HAR), 1-800-THRUWAY and Dynamic Message Signs (DMS) along the entire system. 

* While the Authority offers this service free-of-charge to subscribers, fees for text messages may apply depending on the subscriber’s text messaging provider. Customers are encouraged to contact their mobile service providers to find out how text messaging works with their personal mobile devices.

For more information about TRANSystem and the 1-800-THRUWAY information line, or to sign up for the TRANSalerts, please visit the Authority’s website at www.nysthruway.gov/tas/ .

Return to Contents

Rest Areas/Park and Ride Lots

There are conveniently located parking areas along the Thruway System where travelers are invited to stop and rest during their trips. All of these areas have public telephones. Rest room facilities are not available at the rest areas, with the exception of the four comfort stations on I-84.

The Thruway Authority does offer several commuter Park and Ride lots across the System. Parking at these commuter lots is posted for a maximum stay of 16 hours, and are not designated for multiple day stays.  There are no overnight or long-term parking facilities on the System.

For a complete listing of Park and Ride lots, please visit our traveler's section.

Return to Contents

Toll Information

Tolls along the Thruway can be calculated using the On-Line Toll and Distance Calculator.

The controlled system is from Interchange 15 to 50 and from Interchange 55 to 61.
Outside the controlled or ticket system, fixed tolls are collected at barriers across the Thruway.

An annual permit for use on the ticketed portion of the Thruway is available through E-ZPass for a passenger car, motorcycle, or van with two axles and four tires. The permit plan is also available for vehicles displaying U.S. government license plates that meet the same vehicle classification. The permit includes the first 30 miles per trip, with the exception of a 57-cent surcharge for the Castleton-on-Hudson Bridge on the Berkshire Section. Trips taken for more than the 30-mile limit, a full-fare toll is charged beyond the first 30 miles, with a minimum per trip charge of 15 cents. Commuter E-ZPass plans are also available for those who regularly travel on the Tappan Zee Bridge or Grand Island Bridge, or through the New Rochelle, Yonkers and Harriman Toll Barriers.

Return to Contents

Why Tolls?

The Thruway is strictly a user-supported System. Only those who travel the Thruway pay for it. The Thruway Authority receives no State tax dollars and is therefore dependent on toll revenues to operate, maintain and police its roads and bridges. These revenues also allow the Authority to provide a superior level of maintenance with its Snow-And-Ice Control Program.

Because tolls are a dedicated revenue source, the Authority is able to provide travelers with a safe, well-maintained and convenient transportation system with superior customer service. The Thruway is among the safest superhighways in the nation, with a fatality rate one-fifth the national average.

In 1991, an independent task force, following two years of public hearings, issued a recommendation that Thruway tolls remain. It was an issue of tolls versus taxes, with tolls perceived as being more equitable since tolls are direct user fees.

In 1989 (Chapter 634), Governor Cuomo and the State Legislature created the Thruway Authority Transition Advisory Council and charged it with the responsibility to "make recommendations concerning the future of the Thruway and the Thruway Authority after the scheduled retirement of the Authority's bondable debt in the year 1996..."

The Advisory Council concluded that tolls were the preferable choice because it was more appropriate for those who actually use the Thruway to pay for its maintenance and upkeep rather than the taxpayers of New York generally.  Therefore the Advisory Council recommended to the Legislature and the Governor, that tolls be maintained and that the Authority, with its bonding ability, be retained to meet the highway transportation needs along the Thruway corridor.  

Instead of making the Thruway toll free and returning operation to DOT, in 1992, the Governor and the State Legislature enacted legislation to further expand the responsibilities of the Authority to include the operation and maintenance of the canal system and authorized additional indebtedness secured by toll revenues to assist with the financing of this new responsibility.

Unlike other highways in New York State, the Thruway Authority receives no state tax dollars.  As a toll road, only the people who use the Thruway pay for it.  In addition, an estimated one-third of all vehicles using the Thruway are from out-of-state.

Return to Contents

E-ZPass

The New York State Thruway Authority pioneered the use of electronic toll collection in the Northeast when it introduced E-ZPass to travelers in 1993.

The Thruway Authority is a founding member of the 14-state, 25 agency E-ZPass Interagency Group formed in 1990 with the intention of bringing a single-tag electronic toll collection system to New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Toll authorities in many neighboring states have since joined the group.

The E-ZPass system was designed as a traffic management tool to ease congestion and make travel more convenient. While all Toll Plaza lanes are equipped to accept E-ZPass, most plazas offer non-stop “E-ZPass Only” lanes, which eliminate the need to wait in line with cash-paying customers.

With E-ZPass, tolls are either pre-paid or post-paid depending on the vehicle and account types. A tag mounted on the vehicle interacts with computers and the appropriate toll is calculated as the vehicle passes through the Toll Plaza. E-ZPass customers, passenger and commercial vehicles, receive a discount on Thruway tolls.

Return to Contents

Highway Speed E-ZPass

In January 2007, the Authority activated its first Highway Speed E-ZPass facility for commercial motorists along the Thruway at the Spring Valley Toll Barrier, in Rockland County. This major milestone was a step forward in the Authority’s ongoing effort to improve customer service along the Thruway. Commercial E-ZPass customers who previously had to pull off the highway to pay their toll at Spring Valley are now able to safely bypass the Toll Plaza and electronically pay their toll while traveling at highway speed.

Return to Contents

E-ZPass-On-the-Go

Introduced in 2004, the E-ZPass-On-the-Go Program has made obtaining an E-ZPass more convenient for Thruway motorists.  E-ZPass On-the-Go tags are available at more than 580 locations throughout the state including several gift shops located in Thruway travel plazas.

Upon purchasing an On-the-Go tag, customers will receive the full $25 towards their E-ZPass account. E-ZPass provides a savings of 5 percent off the cash rate on all Thruway tolls for passenger vehicles. On-the-Go tags are only available for passenger vehicle use. Customers must register the On-the-Go tag within the first 48 hours of using the tag.

Return to Contents