Source: US DOT.

Average Hourly Traffic on George Washington Bridge, 2002

The George Washington bridge, linking Manhattan to New Jersey, is one of the most heavily used bridge in the world, with a daily traffic of over 300,000 vehicles. Completed in 1931, a second level containing 6 lanes was added in 1962, making George Washington the world's only 14 lanes suspension bridge. The bridge is facing two major types of congestion problems.

• First, it supports commuting flows between Manhattan and the New Jersey suburbs. This pattern is clearly shown on the above figure where eastbound flows (New Jersey to Manhattan) are more prevalent in the morning, while westbound flows (Manhattan to New Jersey) are more prevalent in the afternoon and the evening.
• Second, the bridge is one of the crucial links along the Boston - Washington corridor (Interstate I-95), which imposes a substantial amount of truck traffic (above 23,000 trucks per day).

There is thus an overlap of local and regional traffic flows, stressing the physical capacity of the bridge to its limits. In addition, the eastbound access to the bridge is subject to toll, which creates a significant backlog and delays. To mitigate the situation, an electronic toll system was established with reserved toll lanes.

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