If you drive the New Jersey Turnpike or the Garden State Parkway, get ready to dig a little deeper into your pocket. For the sixth year in a row, tolls on both roads are going up 3 percent starting January 1, 2026.
The hike is baked into the New Jersey Turnpike Authority’s 2026 spending plan, which commissioners rolled out at their November 18 meeting. The authority says the extra cash, part of a roughly $2.8 million revenue forecast, is needed to keep the lights on, patch potholes, and pay for long-term upgrades.
Most people won’t see their toll jump by dollars and dollars. On the Turnpike, it’s usually just a handful of cents per trip, depending on how far you’re going. Motorcycle riders pulling on or off the Parkway will notice the biggest relative change at the ramps.
The increases come from something called “indexing” that started back in 2020. Every year, the authority looks at inflation numbers and the cost of planned construction projects, then adjusts rates accordingly so they don’t have to slam drivers with one giant increase every decade.
Not everybody is happy about it. The National Motorists Association is asking Governor Phil Murphy to veto this round of hikes before he leaves office. They want the incoming governor, Mikie Sherrill, who takes over in January, to have the final say. The group argues this is a perfect opportunity to hit pause and come up with a fairer way to set tolls moving forward.
And it’s not just the Turnpike and Parkway. Anyone who crosses the Delaware River on the bridges run by the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission is looking at much bigger increases, in many cases more than double the current price, depending on the size of your vehicle and whether you use E-ZPass. The exact start date hasn’t been announced yet, but January 2026 is the target.
Between the two sets of hikes, a lot of regular commuters are bracing for another hit to the monthly budget right after the holidays.
The New Jersey Digest is a new jersey magazine that has chronicled daily life in the Garden State for over 10 years.