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Free toll on Golden Gate Bridge

one little trick in going on vacation a long ways from home is to buy a el-cheap-o car. (for short term)
who's going pay the road tax for the bridge?

we have already paid our road taxes here in Ca, via the
DMV taxes,
FUEL taxes,
SALES taxes,
PROPERTY taxes,
etc.

no need for tolls anyplace in Ca.

what is the tax now for the bay bridge? $5usd only $0.50 that right only 50 cents goes to the bridge district the rest is siphoned off for "other" projects.

i say live on the side of the bay you work on. no tax to cross a bridge.

and it is going to be a big problem when non Americans try to cross the bridge. on vacation. or just can not read english. they stop. the commuting fool behind 1/2 asleep goes smash in to them. shutting down one up to possibly three lanes for a hr or two.

no money saved only jobs lost. as do not forget the tax collectors get paid a very good union retirement..
and the unscene ones dealing with the cash collected, transported, counted, etc. many more jobs lost then reported on the news.

and lets not forget how narrow the lanes are at the booths. just 8 feet wide. people will hit them at 45 mph so have to slow down to 15 or slower to get through safely..and so the readers can work.
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Stormdragon said:
I'd guess you're trying to tell me that the BART doesn't oversee the bridges? :laughing

It's still only a 2 million dollar a year savings though. Not 16 million. :x
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Yeah. :laughing The Golden Gate is its own little division. Pretty sure BART is just trains and such.

If it's a $2 mil savings after implementation costs, that's not bad. I poked around a bit but couldn't find anything definitive.
 
AbsolutEnduser said:
Probably not, as they'd probably have it already figured out. All rental cars will have the fastrak so it will go as quick as possible through the system probably.
Also, a remote-toll like that already works in at least one other state "I've been to" in the USA--and I had a rental there . It actually appeared on my rental bill at checkout.
Click to expand...

Some rental shops outsource the billing to a third party that adds a $3/day or $12/week administrative fee for going through a toll booth. It's pretty ridiculous when you have a rental for a week and a half and only use the transponder once.
 
High-Side said:
I'm guessing if they can't get a plate number you cross free until you get your plates of a FasTrak. :thumbup
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Here's my bet... soon there will be new legislation requiring vehicles sold in CA to have in-built transponders. You know... to stop the child pornographers. :laughing


Anyway... the GG Transit district webiste has lots of data on this online. Though still a bloated and useless tax agency, GG Transit actually does a pretty stand up job of making their financial data available.
http://goldengate.org/board/2011/agendas/documents/F-A01.13.11s3AET_Rpt.pdf (pp 14 and 18 have good detail).

Cliff's notes: $3.2 million implementation costs, estimated savings of $2 million a year, but...
- payroll costs go down a lot, like 5M a year.
- toll transaction costs go way up, like 3M a year.

That part that sounds fictional to me though, is that they will "make every effort" to avoid actually eliminating the people who are being eliminated. In government speak, that usually means creating some other bullshit job for them that doesn't actually need doing, and keep them indefinitely. So I'd be surprised if the payroll cost savings are ever realized for the 34 eliminated positions. On the upside, there will be 5 new jobs. :party
 
mototireguy said:
It will be interesting to see how technology deals with mud covered or obscured license plates.
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I have my Fastrak statements here...I took the BMW off road and got a single streak of mud splashed diagonally across my plate affecting one of the characters. The three months preceding the event I was charged for 28 toll crossings, out of 58 trips (+/-) for a percentage of 48.3% recognition rate. Since the dirty plate, I have been charged 9 times out of a possible 47 trips (+/-) for a recognition rate of 19.1%
 
monkeyneck said:
Yeah. :laughing The Golden Gate is its own little division. Pretty sure BART is just trains and such.

If it's a $2 mil savings after implementation costs, that's not bad. I poked around a bit but couldn't find anything definitive.
Click to expand...

My point is just that they're touting a 16 million dollar savings!!1!(over 8 years) Trying to make it sound like a bigger deal than it really is.


packnrat said:
no money saved only jobs lost. as do not forget the tax collectors get paid a very good union retirement..
.
Click to expand...


That won't last. The state workers have already been nicked for around 20% of their income since The Fall, undoubtedly in a few years, when everyone's forgotten about the former toll takers, their retirements will quietly get slashed in some other 'cost savings measure'.
 
KrustyKruser said:
with my luck a chippie will be waiting on the other side of the booths after trying the covered in mud plate on my plated dirbike....
Click to expand...

...and he'll probably write you up for:

5201.1. (a) A person shall not sell a product or device that obscures, or is intended to obscure, the reading or recognition of a license plate ( )1 by visual means, or by an electronic device as prohibited by subdivision ( )2 (c) of Section 5201.

(b) A person shall not operate a vehicle with a product or device that violates subdivision (a).

(c) A person shall not erase the reflective coating of, paint over the reflective coating of, or alter a license plate to avoid visual or electronic capture of the license plate or its characters by state or local law enforcement.

( )3 (d) A conviction for a violation of ( )4 this section is punishable by a fine of two hundred fifty dollars ($250) per item ( )5 sold or per violation.

I believe (c) will be used a lot :teeth
 
radvas said:
Anyway... the GG Transit district webiste has lots of data on this online. Though still a bloated and useless tax agency, GG Transit actually does a pretty stand up job of making their financial data available.
http://goldengate.org/board/2011/agendas/documents/F-A01.13.11s3AET_Rpt.pdf (pp 14 and 18 have good detail).

Cliff's notes: $3.2 million implementation costs, estimated savings of $2 million a year, but...
- payroll costs go down a lot, like 5M a year.
- toll transaction costs go way up, like 3M a year.
Click to expand...


Thanks for the link. Some of those numbers do sound kind of funky. In particular, if some of the jobs don't go away, or transactions don't go up, the whole thing is a wash, or worse.

monkeythumpa said:
I have my Fastrak statements here...I took the BMW off road and got a single streak of mud splashed diagonally across my plate affecting one of the characters. The three months preceding the event I was charged for 28 toll crossings, out of 58 trips (+/-) for a percentage of 48.3% recognition rate. Since the dirty plate, I have been charged 9 times out of a possible 47 trips (+/-) for a recognition rate of 19.1%
Click to expand...

I need to go off-road more. Also, your rate of plate recognition is considerably lower than mine. They get me just about every time (no transponder).
 
monkeyneck said:
I need to go off-road more. Also, your rate of plate recognition is considerably lower than mine. They get me just about every time (no transponder).
Click to expand...

I have been going over the San Maeto Bridge since August. I think the Bay Bridge has smarter robots working for them. I was getting charged about 3 days per week when I commuted to the City.

It might have to do with speed too. I am going through the SM toll at 65+ mph. My max at the BB gate is probably 45 mph. And that is only when I am not stuck behind a AC Transit bus creeping at 5mph, a tourist is stopped looking for someone to pay, or the Bridge is not backed up.
 
monkeythumpa said:
I have been going over the San Maeto Bridge since August. I think the Bay Bridge has smarter robots working for them. I was getting charged about 3 days per week when I commuted to the City.

It might have to do with speed too. I am going through the SM toll at 65+ mph. My max at the BB gate is probably 45 mph. And that is only when I am not stuck behind a AC Transit bus creeping at 5mph, a tourist is stopped looking for someone to pay, or the Bridge is not backed up.
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Ah, that might be it. I'm generally crossing the BB and often at lower speeds. But sounds like I need to experiment more - they get me at least 80% of the time. Used to miss my VFR more, though.
 
We already do... supposedly. That's what a portion of the gas tax and DMV taxes are supposed to go toward. But then here's this additional charge just for using this specific section of road. OK, that's fine, since the money is just going to THAT section, right? Nope, most of the money goes to other things. As packnrat pointing out, only 50 cents of the toll actually goes to the bridge fund. So why is the toll $6 and rising? Because they see it as a general revenue source. THAT'S why people have an issue with simply ponying up their hard-earned cash for these tolls.

I tell you what, if I lived there, I'd be seriously tempted to come up with a way to hide my plate for those few seconds while going through the toll plaza. It's just another way for our government to bleed us dry.
 
DaveT319 said:
We already do... supposedly. That's what a portion of the gas tax and DMV taxes are supposed to go toward. But then here's this additional charge just for using this specific section of road. OK, that's fine, since the money is just going to THAT section, right? Nope, most of the money goes to other things. As packnrat pointing out, only 50 cents of the toll actually goes to the bridge fund. So why is the toll $6 and rising? Because they see it as a general revenue source. THAT'S why people have an issue with simply ponying up their hard-earned cash for these tolls.

I tell you what, if I lived there, I'd be seriously tempted to come up with a way to hide my plate for those few seconds while going through the toll plaza. It's just another way for our government to bleed us dry.
Click to expand...

+1 I have no problem paying for services for the bridge, mainenance, painters, bridge patrol, etc... not the high pay commissioner positions and non related projects the toll money goes to.
 
this is how adam sandler rolls through

florida_toll_camaro.jpg
 
rear sets these days have really gone too far
 
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