A Staten Island artist says motorists will protest recent toll hikes by paying the $10 cash toll on New York City's Verrazano-Narrows Bridge with 1,000 pennies.

Scott LoBaido says Monday's noon rally will be "a very patriotic event'' by Staten Island motorists who "just need some way to vent'' their frustration over the rising toll costs. Toll collectors do not as a rule accept pennies.

The one-way toll to cross the Verrazano from Brooklyn to Staten Island will rise to $11 on July 12. There is no toll to cross the span in the opposite direction.

New York City's mass transit agency recently voted to raise subway and bus fares and bridge and tolls by 10 percent.