Well the Bay Area Toll Authority (BATA) came to Market Street last night to ask the public the best way to raise tolls on Bay Area bridges (except the Golden Gate Bridge, an entity unto itself).
Who was at the meeting early and ready to go? None other than BATA Oversight Committee Vice-Chair and San Francisco Supervisor Chris Daly avec charming daughter Grace:
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This was the open house part of the meeting early on. Not a huge turnout:
To see why, let’s look at the numbers on the numerous display boards:
BATA isn’t asking people if there should be an increase, but rather, which increase plan is the best:
The seismic safety upgrading for the Dumbarton and Antioch bridges – that’s the primary issues, a billion-dollar issue. How is BATA going to pay for that?
Well pick your poison. How would you balance charges for carpoolers vs. trucks (with all them axles) and would you be into congestion pricing? (Proposal 2 is called the Homer Simpson Option, due to his practice of charging $10 per axle when he lets people park on his lawn.)
Speaking of axles, you big rig truck drivers have gotten a free ride over the years, some people think:
Here are the anticipated impacts of each option:
How do these proposed tolls campare to what the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority charges people to drive across the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, you know, the one with the highest toll in America? Quite nicely, thanks for asking!
So now, what do YOU think is the best way to raise revenue?
You can tell your commissioners about your choice:
Let’s grab a holiday cookie and mull things over:
It looks like staff is going to make a recomendation tomorrow…
…and your toll will go up at least a dollar as of July 1, 2010.
