Bridge Tolls
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BTAP Message BoardRe: bye bye NY[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] [ BTAP Message Board ] Posted by BTAP (24.90.8.23) on December 14, 2003 at 15:57:49: In Reply to: Re: bye bye NY posted by Ian in Brooklyn on December 12, 2003 at 17:35:15:
Dear Ian, You certainly speak for me in abhorring the idea of the rich having more access to public facilities than other people. Charging admission to the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens is terrible, in my book. But as a matter of practical reality, bridge tolls won't alter the income mix of drivers very much. If 5% or even 10% of drivers get "tolled off" the East River bridges, it won't be the poorest 5% or 10%, but a mix. People's tradeoffs between money, time, convenience and need are complex. They're also fluid. Of the drivers opting for the pay-for fast lane over the adjacent free slow lane (this is in California, on SR 91, the biggest such "experiment"), many do so only a few times a week or a month, depending on circumstances. In short, I think the idea that tolls would simply remove some of the middle class from the roads, opening them up for the rich, is a neat rhetorical device with limited substance. Reality, to me, is that the rich drive disproportionately more than the poor and the middle in NYC as elsewhere. Ergo, "free bridges" are a giveaway to the rich. Ian, I'll glady reply to your other points, but this is the main issue, right?
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