Posted on 02/13/2005 8:40:12 AM PST by SmithL
Think another Bay Bridge toll hike would be outrageous or just plain unfair?
Try crossing the Oresund Bridge linking Denmark and Sweden.
The $82 toll includes neither sugary breakfast confections nor Sweden's best-known bikini-clad export -- leaving motorists to wonder whether there is, indeed, something rotten in Denmark.
"I don't particularly agree with a new toll -- I'm still reeling from the new $3 toll," said Erich Malvre, an Emeryville graphic artist who commutes over the Bay Bridge every day. "But I realize in the grand scheme of things, our toll's not that high -- I've traveled back east and they charge $10 to use some bridges."
Compared with commuters around the world, Bay Area motorists have it easy with the current $3 toll on seven state-owned bridges. But that could change, as lawmakers and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger have signaled support for a toll hike to help cover the rising cost of rebuilding the Bay Bridge's eastern span.
"I would say $4 is a pretty average or normal toll these days for a major bridge," said Peter Samuel, editor of an Internet news letter that tracks highway and bridge tolls.
"Most of our tolls in America are less than they are internationally, and that's partly a function of our bridges being older," Samuel said. "The tolls relate to the original costs of construction."
It costs $8 to cross the Bronx Whitestone Bridge to Long Island and $6 to traverse the George Washington Bridge between New York and New Jersey.
Think that's steep? Better hope your summer vacation doesn't involve clam digging along the Virginia coast. A two-way pass on the 17-mile Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel will set you back $14. And that doesn't include pails and shovels.
If your morning commute is bad enough to take you across the Pacific Ocean, get ready to pay $43 to cross Japan's Akashi Kaikyo Bridge.
Of course, there also are scores of bridges throughout the world that charge a whole lot less than the Bay Area's. It costs $1 to cross the Sunshine Skyway bridge in Florida, and the Interstate 78 bridge between New Jersey and Pennsylvania charges 75 cents, just to name a few.
Spreading the cost
How a bridge is used appears to be a major factor in toll rates.
For instance, traffic on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel varies wildly, depending on the season, but averages 10,000 motorists daily. Without a base of steady commuters, the toll revenue is generated largely by vacationers. The $14 roundtrip fee covers construction costs and reserves for a new tunnel, said spokeswoman Lorraine Smith.
"We do not receive any state, local or federal money," Smith said. "We operate solely from the revenues we collect."
The same goes for a new cable-stayed suspension span in France.
When the Millau Bridge garnered international headlines in December for its striking spires and rapid, three-year construction timeline, the news sent Caltrans into a bridge-envy frenzy of damage control. The department sent out a "fact sheet" saying a whopping crowd of 30 people protested the span's opening. Oh yeah, and the construction company was involved in building a new Paris airport wing that collapsed.
The toll on the Millau Bridge fluctuates with the season, with the money dedicated to repaying $523 million in private construction financing. The span sees about 20,000 motorists each day.
"You're spreading the costs over a smaller number of motorists," Samuel said.
What tolls pay for
Another factor in toll rates is where the money goes. Samuel said many older bridges were paid for long ago, so tolls largely cover maintenance. Other tolls cover services not related to the bridge at all, he said.
The $82 Oresund Bridge toll in Denmark subsidizes rail service, as well as the bridge's construction, for instance.
A similar funding scenario is at work in the Bay Area, though at a fraction of the costs.
The $3 toll on this region's seven state-owned bridges is divided into three main categories.
The first dollar covers operations, maintenance, some mass-transit service and bridge construction, such as the Benicia and Carquinez spans.
The second dollar is earmarked for seismic strengthening of bridges, including building the new east span of the Bay Bridge.
The final dollar, which voters agreed to last year, pays for everything from BART and bus service to new lanes on Highway 4 and a fourth bore of the Caldecott Tunnel.
Commuters are divided. With more than $3 billion in increases on the new Bay Bridge since 2001, a toll hike is already on the negotiating table. It's not yet a certainty, and commuters don't seem to have drawn lines in the pavement -- yet.
Greg Nelson, a graphic designer whose reverse commute takes him from San Francisco to Oakland each morning, said he would pay a higher toll, so long as the Bay Bridge replacement is built with a unique suspension span design instead of the plainer causeway Schwarzenegger favors.
"It's a question of quality," he said.
Rod Harris, a retired Berkeley firefighter who lives in Walnut Creek, remembers the highway halcyon days when crossing the Bay Bridge cost just 25 cents.
"My dad said the bridge would be paid off in no time and the toll would be gone," Harris said.
That was 60 years ago. ...
/sarc
The explanation of tolls here is down right deceptive and simplistic. To understand the evolution of bridge and road tolls you have turn to the Power Broker, Robert Caro's biography of Robert Moses.
A toll was intended to be a temporary use tax for using a bridge or tunnel. The "Authority" that issued the bond that would be paid off by the toll collections was a temporary entity that was created only for the purpose of financing the facility and building it. Once the bonds were paid off, the Authority would fade away and cease to exist. What Moses figured out was that as long as he kept issuing bonds, the Authority would live forever. Then the race was on to build additional projects to keep the authority's life going and to expand its power. Authorities at the time and some still today, were quasi-public entities that had minimal accountability to the public. This led to massive corruption and a shadowy institution who's finances were kept from the public. Today the finances are more transparent. But the authorities are used and abused to take on debt that the taxpayers would not otherwise vote for. In NY it became a means for massive off the books financing that the state was not technically responsible for but rather had a moral obligation to pay. These moral obligation bonds were the brain child of former attorney general under Nixon, John Mitchell.
The authority has become a means to build shopping centers, high rise luxury housing, to subsidize developers and large corporations and numerous other socialist undertakings that would even make Robert Moses blanche.
In 1964 I was in the Navy stationed at the Treasure Island Naval Station. Treasure Island is a man-made island accessible from Yerba Buena Island, which is the island between the two bridge spans. It was twenty-five cents if you were coming from Oakland, but free if you came from San Francisco. My wife and I decided to live on the San Francisco side due to the high cost of commuting from the Oakland side. I made $82.00 per month back then. There was an article in the San Francisco back then saying the bridge would be paid for in a few years and the toll would go away.
If it were a privately owned bridge, I'd have no problem with the toll.
If there were not already a highway/infrastructure line item in the budget that was being funded through taxes, then I'd have little trouble with this.
But if a tax is already supposed to take care of this, then some leader, taxer, and planner need to be fired.
We were told, when these bridges were built (particularly
the Bay Bridge), that when the bonds were paid off; It would be free! The State lied to us.
Hadn't driven to NYC in a long time, and found the tolls astonishing...$6 for the Lincoln Tunnel...round trip...$8 for the Queens Midtown Tunnel round trip
and $8 for the Verazzano bridge...gaaak...clearly, these are indirect taxes.
"James Madison Federalist 42" http://thomas.loc.gov/home/histdox/fed_42.html
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