[qnk]

   "drivers would not have to pay if they entered Manhattan
   by all but two of the city-owned East River bridges,
   which are now free to cross, as long as they bypassed
   the congestion zone."

I don't think I understand this part. Why would you have to pay if you "bypass the congestion zone"? no matter where you're coming from. Now, if what this means is that you don't have to pay the $11.52 fee after having already paid the $15 (if you pay cash) for the toll fee coming from New Jersey, makes sense.

[ghaff]

It's confusing the way it is written and there's no actual map but:

"In turn, that means drivers can enter Midtown and Lower Manhattan by two bridges without paying as long as they go directly to the F.D.R. Drive along the East River and then continue on it until they are out of the congestion zone."

I believe what they're saying is that you still enter the congestion zone via those two bridges but you can stay on FDR drive and exit the zone without getting on interior streets [ADDED: and not get charged. FDR Drive is the road that runs along the East River.]

[alistairSH]

Poorly phrased, but I think the overall point is...

Previous proposals had the congestion zone covering a larger portion of downtown, which meant paying the toll even if you were just passing through on an arterial roadway.

New systems allow finer grained control of where the congestion zone begins. So, a small number of arterial roads/bridges can be left outside the zone, and toll-free.

[noer]

I think one example would be that if you drive over the Brooklyn Bridge or Queensborough Bridge, but get directly onto the FDR, drive north to wherever the congestion zone ends (the last time they floated the idea it was 86th St), exit onto city streets and drive south from there. The Williamsburg & Manhattan bridges have no direct connection to the FDR.