Comments on: Should the free ride end for car pools on Bay Area bridges?

By: Mary

Mary — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 05:22:14 +0000

We should be doing everything possible to maintain and expand carpools!

By: david vartanoff

david vartanoff — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 19:08:22 +0000

The carpool concept is FILL UP the vehicle! Casual carpooling does this just as validly as ‘organized’ does The discount should obtain 24/7 I have said for years the tolls should penalize the single drivers, again, 24/7. The one exception IMHO is that BART should receive NO Funds from tolls collected during hours they refuse to operate.

By: Eric

Eric — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 18:52:49 +0000

I am in favor of charging for carpools. In fact,as Doug says, eliminate the discount, because carpoolers split the toll at least three ways. Also, as long as the casual carpooling menace continues, carpools do not help relieve congestion or lessen gas waste or combat climate change. Casual carpooling only allows single occupant auto users to use bus riders as human fast trak devices. Because of this piggishness, bus ridership and revenue go down, toll revenue goes down and budget crises are worsened. Transportation planners should be trying to get the most people in the fewest vehicles. Casual carpooling does the opposite of this. It should branded for what it is, not rewarded.

By: Susan

Susan — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 17:29:51 +0000

I’d like to see them kick out all the single-driver hybrids. That’s been the single biggest change I’ve noticed in terms of the overall congestion of the carpool lanes.

By: Edwin Ball

Edwin Ball — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 12:09:52 +0000

first off, the car pool lanes are a joke. You get some yahoo in there doing 58 MPH, traffic stacked up behind him for miles and he/she refuses to relinquish the left lane. The California Freeway concept was to expediously move traffic from one point to another. these civilian police do nore to cause sig alerts then to save the environment. Left lane for overtaking slower traffic,period

By: dcuff

dcuff — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 02:43:44 +0000

In response to the question about how the proposed tolls would be collected from car pools, the Bay Area Toll Authority managers say they would require car pool drivers sign up for FasTrak to use the car pool lanes on bridges. The strategy, they say, would be to collect the tolls electronically while causing as little backup as possible.

By: Deb

Deb — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 02:22:37 +0000

Carpooling should be encouraged, not discouraged. For those people who take advantage of this means of transit, it saves lots of time. The problem is that there are not a lot of people using carpools. During the BART strike a few years ago, there were several single occupant cars crossing the bridges.

This is not necessarily going to increase ridership for AC Transit, which already has buses with standing room only going into the City during the commute hours.

As another rider points out, a toll for carpool lanes will slow down an already congested bridge. What’s next, tolls for buses?

By: Doug

Doug — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 01:31:54 +0000

Carpoolers already have the cost reduction of sharing the expense, charge them full price.
Besides, I disagree with the whole argument for carpools in the first place. I have carpooled for months with several different partners, and most people do not continue carpooling because of free or faster lanes. Carpool lanes are unsafe and unfair and I have not seen a well done study that properly analyzes the problems and benefits of carpool lanes.
We put in carpool lanes as a compromise with the ecologists so they would not block the building of more lanes by challenging the ecological impact reports. Since then we have done the most superficial appraisals with fundamentally flawed logic and reported our conclusions on the basis of what we wanted to conclude.
Carpool lanes have created a privileged class that now feels entitled to their ‘rights’. Worse yet is the movement to allow individuals to pay for the right to drive (alone) in the ‘carpool’ lanes, extending the favored class to include those with more money, even though we have all paid money over years to build these bridges and roads.

By: ndnq

ndnq — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 23:48:46 +0000

Scratch that: TWO bridge tolls to/From Vallejo.

So three dollars to drive through S.F. both ways, plus 8 to drive two bridges…and gas…

OR a two and a half hour trip on public transport.

Lordy. Time to leave California….it’s just too expensive here.

By: ndnq

ndnq — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 23:46:53 +0000

So….currently, I pick up riders in Vallejo and drive in. Right now, S.F. is considering a fee for driving city streets in certain areas during rush hour—right where I have to drop off and pick up riders for the trip home. Now we’ll be paying a bridge toll alongside that?
Oy.