The free ride is over.

The cash-strapped Port Authority slapped 20 habitual toll evaders with lawsuits yesterday, part of a new crackdown aimed at recouping millions in lost revenue from deadbeat motorists.

The bi-state agency’s sudden interest in pursuing the brazen toll evaders — after years of shrugging off the lost revenue — comes on the heels of a Post story that found it regularly failed to sue scofflaws to get the desperately needed money.

After the story broke, the agency — which last year enacted crushing fare and toll hikes on its crossings — promised to get tough.

Yesterday, the worst of the worst scofflaws learned the hard way that the agency wasn’t kidding.

“Cracking down on repeat offenders and, in particular, those who have egregiously violated the law will be part of our ongoing and aggressive collection efforts,” said PA Executive Director Pat Foye.

Unlike many other bridges and tunnels in the region — like the MTA’s — the PA’s crossings have no toll gates, allowing unscrupulous drivers to go without paying.

One of the top offenders now being sued is the Fusella Group, a trucking company that owes more than $425,000 in tolls and fines to the agency.

The owners of that company — which had a contract to haul debris from the World Trade Center site — are under indictment for tax fraud, cheating workers out of wages and conspiring to keep money out of a union benefit fund.

Although many of the defendants are big-rig trucking companies, individual motorists also are being sued.

The list of the lead-footed drivers includes Jean and Peter Davis, a mother-and-son duo from Englewood, NJ.

Peter Davis, 52, previously admitted to The Post that he used his 75-year-old mom’s Ford Focus for drug-buying missions into Manhattan.

During those trips, he racked up more than $120,000 in unpaid tolls and fees.

“When you’re addicted like that, you don’t think of the consequences. You have other things on your mind,” he told The Post.

He claims he is in recovery.

His mother, meanwhile, is furious she’s been hit with the hefty toll bill.

“If I could have killed him and gotten away with it, I would have,” said Jean Davis, a retired data processor.

In addition to the lawsuits, another top toll evader was hit with criminal charges.