Another slight for Green HOV stickers

The Golden Gate Bridge is getting rid of the toll takers completely and requiring payment either via Fastrak transponders or online accounts based on the license plate. This is really going to hit tourists in rental cars, since car rental companies typically have obscene "convenience fees" (like $100) to collect such toll fees. But that is for another thread; what this thread is about is that, according to our usually very sharp newspaper traffic reporter, the carpool toll rate on the Golden Gate Bridge will apply to cars with the white EV HOV decals, but specifically will NOT apply to the plugin-hybrid green HOV decals that the PiP gets.

Maybe it's just a rant, but why the #%(*#%!@ can't they just declare all HOV decals to be the equivalent of having number of passengers which qualifies for a carpool, and be done with that !!! As it is, you are responsible for knowing the details of the legislative act under which a given toll facility is funded to know exactly what are the "rules" for a particular situation. Same thing for the new toll roads in the L.A. area. Absurd!! But typical bureaucratic procedure!

 

That is essentially what will happen for the Golden Gate Bridge. The preferred payment setup is a Fastrak transponder, but you can also set up a pre-paid account keyed to your license plate. If you don't set that up ahead of time, you will get a bill which if you pay quickly enough, won't have a penalty. This includes out-of-state drivers, due to friendly (!) cooperation between state motor vehicle departments. And as I mentioned, tourists driving rental cars can expect a large "convenience surcharge" from their car rental company for processing these tolls. And they haven't specifically mentioned this, but in California, there is a large class of people whose personal license plate information is restricted even from toll authorities; this class includes police officers, judges, prosecutors, and the like (pretty much anyone even remotely associated with law enforcement or the justice system). And these folks know know that they can just blow off tolls for their personal vehicles, since the toll authorities can't get the address to send the bill to.

 

They were talking about much bigger numbers around here. As I understand it, it is for the case when the car rental company gets a charge attached to the license plate rather than to a transponder. When I was in Austin, Texas last year, the car rental company warned about the toll roads and the charges that would be assessed if you used them. But I don't recall the $ amounts. I just made sure I avoided those roads.

 

Sometimes I think that they deliberately make the carpool rules as convoluted as they can, in order to increase the revenue from "carpool violation" fines.

 

Pity the poor tourist who blows across the bridge without paying the toll, and sees what greets him when he gets home two weeks later after his nice vacation!

 

HERESY!