Sound off on bridge-toll proposals

By: Will Reisman
Examiner Staff Writer
10/29/09 10:52 AM PDT

While the Bay Bridge has made all sorts of headlines during the past few days, motorists and commuters will get a chance to sound off on an entirely different story next Wednesday—a proposal to raise tolls on the span.

Earlier this month, officials from the Bay Area Toll Authority, a regional body that maintains operations on seven local bridges (not including the Golden Gate), proposed three options for raising tolls on the spans , including a congestion-based increase that could costs motorists $6 to cross the Bay Bridge during peak travel times.

On Wednesday, the public will get its first chance to respond to the proposals, in a hearing scheduled for 1:30 p.m. at the Joseph P. Bort MetroCenter at 101 Eighth St. in Oakland.

The hearing is the first of three in November regarding the toll proposals, which regional officials say are essential to pay for seismic upgrades to Bay Area bridges.

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All comments on this page are subject to our Terms of Use and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Examiner or its staff. Comment box is limited to 250 words.

Pat

Oct 29, 2009

Billions of dolalrs could have been saved if the transit audthority had gotten its act together and started building the bridge replacement in 1990. Years and years of needless delay have resultedin these skyrocketing costs that they now want to stick to the commuters. The transit authority should take responsibility for their dithering (I know, it's an overused term these days)and find the money somehwere else. The Mayors Brown (yes you, Willie and Jerry) also have to take responsibility for adding to the rebuilding delays with their ridiculous demands about bridge design. This should have been done 10 years ago.

pdesr

Nov 18, 2009

Wikipedia states that an average of 270,000 vehicles a day cross the bridge of two decks, So allowing for half the cars to be going in the free direction, lets make the average 135,000 cars through the toll booth every day.

The non-car pool driver pays $4.00, trucks pay $11.25, so let’s still consider the average to be $4.00 to allow for the car pool drivers. That would mean that the amount taken in every day is about $540,000. That means $3,780,000 a week or $16,2000,00 a month or $194,000,000 a year.

It Certainly seems to be enough to operate the bridge on a yearly basis.

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Sound off on bridge-toll proposals

By: Will Reisman
Examiner Staff Writer
10/29/09 10:52 AM PDT