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The Garden State Parkway is a 172.4-mile (277-km) limited-access toll Parkway that stretches the length of New Jersey from the New York Thruway at Montvale , New Jersey , to Cape May at the southern tip of the state. Its name refers to the state nickname, the "Garden State." Along with the New Jersey Turnpike , Atlantic City Expressway , Palisades Interstate Parkway & I-295 (NJ) , it is one of five limited access highways closely associated with the suburban highway-centered culture of New Jersey. Within New Jersey, the official (unsigned) designation is ''' New Jersey State Reference Route 444'''. All but two miles of the road are within the state of New Jersey. The short segment that is in New York and connects to the New York State Thruway is officially designated as ''' New York State Reference Route 982L'''. Two short spurs are given numbers by the New Jersey Department Of Transportation . New Jersey State Reference Route 444R is the connector at exit 117 to Route 35 at the north end of Route 36 in Keyport . ''' New Jersey State Reference Route 444S''' is the connector at exit 105 to the south end of New Jersey State Highway 36 at Hope Road ( CR 51 ) near Eatontown . At the Asbury tolls, the parkway splits into express and local lanes; these end at the Raritan tolls. The express lanes have no access to any exits, except for 105 in Eatontown, New Jersey , and exit 117 in Aberdeen, New Jersey . HISTORY The Parkway was constructed between 1946 and 1957 to connect suburban northern New Jersey with resort areas along the Atlantic coast and to alleviate traffic on traditional north-south routes running through each town center, such as US 1, US 9, and NJ 35. Unofficially, it has two sections: the "metropolitan section" north of the Raritan River and the "shore section" between the Raritan River and Cape May. Only 18 miles had been constructed by 1950, but taking a cue from the successful Thruway, on April 14, 1952, the State Legislature created the New Jersey Highway Authority, empowered to construct, operate, and maintain a self-sufficient toll parkway from Paramus to Cape May. The landscape architect and engineer in charge of the newly-named "Garden State Parkway" was Gilmore Clarke, who had worked with Robert Moses on the parkway systems around New York City . Clarke's design prototypes for the parkway combined the example of the Pennsylvania Turnpike , a model of efficiency with parallels in the German Autobahn routes of the 1930s, with the Merritt Parkway model that stressed a planted "green belt" for beauty. Both design models featured wide planted medians to prevent head-on collisions and mask the glare of on-coming headlights. Most of the metropolitan section is like any expressway built in the 1950s through heavily populated areas. The shore section parallels United States Highway 9 and runs through unspoiled wilderness in the New Jersey Pine Barrens . In Cape May County, the Parkway has three traffic lights (at exits 8, 10, and 11 respectively), but these may be eliminated in the future. On July 9 , 2003 , New Jersey Governor James McGreevey's plan to merge the operating organizations of the Garden State Parkway and the New Jersey Turnpike into one agency was completed. USAGE The speed limit on the Parkway is 65 mph (100 km/h) from mileposts 27 to 123 and 163 to the New York border, and it is 55 mph (90 km/h) on the rest of the roadway. Only a short segment, the Great Egg Harbor Bridge south of Atlantic City, has a 45 mph (70 km/h) speed limit, due to the design of the bridge. {Link without Title} The same 45 mph speed limit is imposed on the Driscoll Bridge in Woodbridge due to deteriorating conditions on the bridge's road surface. Commercial trucks with a registered weight of over 7,000 pounds (3.18 tonnes) are not allowed to use the northern parts of the Parkway. From the Asbury Park exit (in Tinton Falls ) to the southern end of the Parkway at Cape May, trucks are allowed and pay additional tolls. Whereas the New Jersey Turnpike uses a system of long-distance tickets, obtained once by a motorist upon entering and surrendered upon exiting at toll gates, the Garden State Parkway uses no tickets but collects tolls at toll barriers at semi-regular intervals along its length and at certain exits. The standard car toll is 35 cents on the main road at two-way toll plazas and 70 cents at one-way toll plazas. At exits, tolls are either 70 cents, 35 cents, 25 cents, or free. Both the Turnpike and the Parkway now allow for payment with the E-ZPass system, which replaced the old token system. Tokens originally cost $10 for a roll of 40 tokens (the toll, when tokens were introduced, was 25 cents) but when the toll was increased to 35 cents, rolls were 30 tokens for $10--they are still valid at any toll plaza, but they can no longer be purchased. They are quickly falling into disuse as an effect of the popularity of E-ZPass, and they are becoming a curiosity similar to Two-dollar Bills . Tokens were originally brass, but were changed to a bimetallic composition, with an outer silver-colored ring and a brass core. There also exist larger bus tokens with a similar bimetallic composition. To reduce congestion, some toll plazas on the roadway were converted into one-way plazas in 2004 and 2005. A 70-cent toll is collected in one direction, and the other direction is toll-free. As of January 8 , 2006 , the Asbury Park (in Tinton Falls ), Raritan (in Sayreville ), Union (in Hillside Township ), Essex (in Bloomfield Township ), Bergen (in Saddle Brook ), Great Egg (in Somers Point ), New Gretna (in Bass River Township ), and Cape May (in Upper Township ) plazas had been converted to one-way tolls. The Raritan, Asbury Park, Pascack Valley (in Washington Township ), and Toms River (in Dover Township ) plazas also feature Express E-ZPass lanes that allow motorists to pass through the tolls while going 65 mph (100 km/h). Officials are also considering converting the Barnegat Toll Plaza (in Barnegat ) to one-way tolling with Express E-ZPass, but As Of 2006 , this project has not started. {Link without Title} {Link without Title} {Link without Title} SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS
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