Bronx-Whitestone Bridge Toll: TLC Driver Guide

In short: The Bronx-Whitestone Bridge costs a car $7.46 with a New York E-ZPass, $9.79 Mid-Tier and $12.03 by mail, in each direction. On a TLC trip the passenger pays the actual E-ZPass amount. In a taxi or green cab, the toll must appear as its own line on the receipt. On Uber and Lyft, the company must pay the toll back to you in full.

Whitestone rates (Class 1 car)

• $7.46 only with an NYCSC tag. "Non-NYCSC customers pay Tolls by Mail rates" (MTA), so a tag from New Jersey or another state is charged $12.03 here.
• Mid-Tier, $9.79, is for NYCSC customers whose tag was not read (badly mounted) or whose crossing was charged by plate.
• The price is the same as the Throgs Neck and RFK, the other two MTA links between the Bronx and Queens.

Choosing between the three Bronx–Queens bridges

All three cost the same, so the choice is about distance and traffic, not price. TLC rule §80-16(a) says you must follow a passenger's reasonable routing request, and without one take "the shortest reasonable route" (fine $100 before a hearing, $150 after). If the passenger names a bridge, use it. If traffic makes you think another bridge is better, ask first.

Who pays on each kind of TLC trip

On trips within New York City, the passenger pays "all tolls incurred during the trip". The only exceptions are certain trips over the Verrazzano, Cross Bay and Marine Parkway bridges (2023 rule).

Your empty trip back over the bridge is not the passenger's cost. If you drive a leased or company vehicle, forward the passengers' toll money to the tag holder at the end of the shift or lease (§80-15(d)(4)).

What a taxi receipt must show

TLC rule §80-16(d) says that at the end of a trip in a taxi, or a hail trip in a street hail livery, the driver must offer a receipt, and give one when asked. The receipt must state:

1. date and time;
2. medallion or street hail livery license number;
3. trip number;
4. total fare;
5. tolls;
6. surcharges and extras;
7. tip, if paid by card, and the last four digits of the card;
8. the driver's license number and the 311 complaint number.

Fine for a missing or incomplete receipt: $50 if you plead guilty before a hearing, $75 after, plus 1 point. The taxi's trip record must also carry the itemized fare: "fare, tolls, surcharge, and tip" (§58-22(a)(9)). In practice the meter system prints this for you; your job is to make sure the toll is entered, at the E-ZPass amount, before you end the trip. More: toll receipts on the taxi meter.

For app trips, TLC trip records keep the toll separate from pay: tolls is "total amount of all tolls paid in trip", and driver_pay is pay "not including tolls or tips" (HVFHV dictionary). So the toll should show as its own line, not inside your fare share.

Traffic on the Whitestone

In 2025 the bridge carried 50,700,608 crossings: 26,535,485 southbound to Queens and 24,165,123 northbound to the Bronx. 84.3% were paid with E-ZPass, a little below the 85.8% average for all MTA crossings (our sums of ebfx-2m7v, fetched October 12, 2026). Traffic has been close to 50 million a year since 2022. All crossings compared: NYC toll rates compared.

Other crossings: Verrazzano-Narrows, Cross Bay, George Washington Bridge. Borough guides: the Bronx, Queens. All crossings: tolls hub.