• There has been a recent cluster of spammers accessing BARFer accounts and posting spam. To safeguard your account, please consider changing your password. It would be even better to take the additional step of enabling 2 Factor Authentication (2FA) on your BARF account. Read more here.

Bridge Tolls-an invitation to make your case (Meeting in OAKLAND July 28th!)

so are we rolling on the Bay Area Toll Authority in mass quantities on July 28?
 
Mr Pepsi said:
So something else occurred to me on my way in today. Whoever is meeting with this guy also needs to bring up that motorcycles are essentially paying for Stickered low emissions vehicles discounted rates. Stickered hybrids now pay $2.50 like motos when they used to pay $4.00. How is that fair? They cause more wear and tear than we do!
Click to expand...

That is a subsidized incentive. It is not 'fair', but they want to encourage LEV's.
 
A point for $0 charge is that if carpool requires fast track and MCs deserve to be half rates to cages at most (should be 25%), how on earth would fast track figure out to charge less than a car? I doubt their system is flexible enough to manage special MC transponders and rates...

Also, Safety concerns with transponders: carying hard items in jackets are dangerous in event of crash (broken ribs anyone?). Whether we carry phones or other things is irrelavent, being required to add a safety risk opens state up to lawsuit in event of injury.
 
xxMax Powerxx said:
Also, Safety concerns with transponders: carying hard items in jackets are dangerous in event of crash (broken ribs anyone?). Whether we carry phones or other things is irrelavent, being required to add a safety risk opens state up to lawsuit in event of injury.
Click to expand...

Good one! That should be in the notes!
 
sliverstorm said:
Perhaps that's an incentive to request a more compact module that better fits in pants pockets?
Click to expand...

NO!!!
But really I was thinking this, we can't leave our fastraks on our bikes because they get stolen, they don't record in our pockets, so the additional expense of sorting photos is crazy.
I think the argument for less wear and tear and less congestion is a winner.
 
Happy Hornet said:
NO!!!
they don't record in our pockets, so the additional expense of sorting photos is crazy.
Click to expand...

Actually your pocket is exactly where fast trak's web page suggest a motorcyclist can carry the unit, and says that it will read through the pocket just fine :)
 
sliverstorm said:
Actually your pocket is exactly where fast trak's web page suggest a motorcyclist can carry the unit, and says that it will read through the pocket just fine :)
Click to expand...

Clearly they've never actually tried doing that.
 
I think paying the 3$ for carpool sucks and I hate to make a case against having it free again but:

The carpool at least for the GGB was only between 6-9am and 4-6pm on weekdays, certainly motorcycles crossed the bridge other than those times and had to pay the full price in cash? Or had the fastrak tag on the bike (I have mine velcroed to the windshield and it's easily removed and put back on)

I would argue that:

increase the GGB bridge cash toll to 7$

Keep carpools + motorcycles free (to increase incentive to carpool and ride bikes, hence less traffic and cars coming into the city)

keep fastrak to 5$ to encourage even more people.
 
Why cant the photo system that reads our licenses tell the difference?

If the system is capable of looking up the DMV record of the owner, it should be easy to make it tell the type of vehicle. And if not, moto license numbers are a different format than car licenses (car=#-3 letters-###, bike =##-Letter-###). Setting up their computer to tell the difference should be simple....
 
I just exchanged emails with my contact at BATA regarding attending next week's meeting, and we're all set. My plan is to be at the Metrocenter Auditorium, 101 8th St, Oakland, by around 9am on the 28th. The meeting begins at 9:30 and is pretty brief. My BATA guy told me to find him prior to the meeting and he would walk us through the process for public commenting.

As far as preparation, I still haven't gone thru this thread and summarized it - but directionally I think the only logical argument we have is one based on the enormous weight disparity between cars and bikes, which, based on the per axle charging scheme they use, would appear to give us a legitimate claim to reduced or no tolls. After that the arguments I recall reading get more subjective in nature; and some even suggest that we shouldn't be asking for any concession at all (!).

If anyone else has some time or has already gone through and summarized this thread please share it - would be a big help.

If you're a lawyer type and you would like to participate at the meeting, or help me prepare my comments for it let me know.

If you're interested in attending next week on the 28th you can either just show up, or let me know your plans and we can meet for a coffee beforehand (actually that might be better - get a chance to meet some of you). I don't know what kind of space they have for these meetings, so if 100 of us show up it may not be any problem or it may overwhelm them. I'll ask my contact about this.

Thanks, all, for your interest. It will be interesting to see how this all works out - my first foray into community activism.

-Tom
 
Regardless of the outcome, I appreciate everyone's efforts with this. I will unfortunately be out of state on a ride.
 
I think the best argument is that for some of us, it is cheaper to go around the biridges. BIKES are cheap on gas, I can skip the Dumbarton and San Mateo and go round the pennisula and save myself a few bucks.
 
Jabberwocky said:
I think the best argument is that for some of us, it is cheaper to go around the biridges. BIKES are cheap on gas, I can skip the Dumbarton and San Mateo and go round the pennisula and save myself a few bucks.
Click to expand...

I couldn't disagree more. Not a good arguement.
 
Are you charged more if your bike is registered for FastTrack and it doesn't pick up the unit?
 
Yes. Then you have to call in and get the charged disputed. Two weeks and one correct charge so far on the GGB. Check your bills everyone.
 
Hey all - ok, so we're on for tomorrow, July 28, at 9:30am at the BATA Commission meeting, held at the MetroCenter Auditorium in Oakland, 101 8th st, Oakland, CA.

At this stage I have no one else that I know of who has committed to attend - that's fine, but it would be nice to have a wing man, and perhaps a few other representatives from BARF, especially those who are regular commuters across the bridges (I no longer commute regularly across them, but I have in the past).

We will have about three minutes to make a statement about our position to the Commission, and then they may ask questions (not sure about this). I have a contact from BATA who is sympathetic to our message, who will meet us prior to the meeting and help us get organized. He tells me this part of the meeting is quick, and we will be finished within an hour, so by 10:30 latest. Here is the email note I received from Randy, my contact at the Commission. If you're planning on coming (and you should) please read it - there is room for a lot of us:
Tom

The room is large enough to handle a crowd. If you going to bring a
crowd let me know so we can be prepared.

On the size of the crowd, numbers can matter, but so can other things,
such as being polite. I have seen large, but unruly groups harm their
cause here.

Here are rules, we enforce a 3 minute time limit. However, we can't
handle 3 minutes times 100 people (300 minutes - 5 hours, who could?, if
faced with this problem the Commission will shorten the time). So find
some leaders who can speak and make the points the group wants to make,
or have people come up and say something very short, such as, "I am
(introduce ones-self), I agree/disagree with the prior
person.....etc..."

People can stand, bring signs, show support, but we enforce rules of
decent behavior, no clapping, demonstrations, etc. They Commission will
clear the room.

Unless your just mad and don't care on the outcome, keep in mind that
your audience is a board of mostly elected officials, if you want to
have them do what you want them to do, then don't alienate them. Don't
fall for the trap of speaking to the audience you bring. The audience
doesn't have a vote.

Also keep in mind that we follow Brown Act rules that are in state law.
What this means for those who have forgotten their civic's lessons is
that no action on this subject can be taken on this subject at this
meeting because the subject is not on the published meeting Agenda. You
can talk on any subject, but no action can be taken.

Your role is to come to a meeting, communicate a course of action you
want the Commission to take, or voice a gripe over an action they
already took and you don't like, but make sure you know that the
Commission cannot take any kind of action at this meeting.

In your subject can be adendized for action, maybe that is what you ask
for, but this will not happen this month.
Click to expand...

If anyone else decides to show up and wants to meet prior for a coffee around 9am I'll be at Berkeley's Best Cafe, 77 8th Street, a block away.

Let me know.

-Tom
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top