Getting rid of the toll booths that act as choke points and the toll agencies, which are just another layer of bureaucracy, strikes me as a better solution. Raise the gas tax in the metro counties as much as is needed to maintain and replace the bridges instead!
Rick
The bridges are expensive to build and maintain. Tolls on the bridges encourages people to work near where they live.
So you think people should have to move every time they get a new job? That's ridiculous.
So do you think people who chose to live near where they work should be paying much higher taxes to subsidize an intrinsically expensive commute for those who don't?
If one adds X amount of cents per gallon to the gas tax for the counties in the Bay Area, then that does the job of covering the region which generates the majority of traffic on those bridges.
Despite living in downstate Oregon, I would be happy to pay more gas tax if government was efficient in the use of the funds to see the majority of it go to the I-5 corridor since that is where the most people live. It is also where the most jobs are and the transportation backbone that sees goods as well as tourists come and go to us out here in left field. We who live here do need various projects taken care of but nowhere as much as the most populated part of Oregon does! Besides, when I leave home to go to Capital City, Springfield and Shelbyville, it sure would be easier if the urban roads are up to snuff.
No matter how one argues the case, one thing is undeniable. Every layer of bureaucracy adds costs without adding pavement or maintenance. Tolls do such, thus they must be opposed.
Parking meters on the other hand are about churn. If some is not generated, there will be less parking for those who come and go, which is an important consideration in downtown districts that are active. Sometimes one mixes in lots, free and paid as well as public and private parking. Those are city planner deals which respond to the demand for parking at a particular time or particular era. No need for meters when the demand for parking spaces is low after all! Go the other way as some neighborhoods in PDX illustrate and then conditions rise to the Something Must Be Done level. One then chooses the best of bad alternatives sometimes while reminding themselves that doing nothing is even worse!
Rick