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Couldn't they have like a toll tag sticker provided by a business working downtown if you're an employee or resident? If you work downtown you're free to get in

Couldn't they have like a toll tag sticker provided by a business working downtown if you're an employee or resident? If you work downtown you're free to get in. If you're just trying to pass thru you pay a fee? I don't understand how if the manager of the place of business makes more money he has to pay more than someone who also works there with the same need to go to work?

tenebrisalietum 5y ago
From https://investopedia.com/terms/r/regressivetax.asp https://investopedia.com/terms/r/regressivetax.asp: "User Fees ... ...if two families travel to the Grand Canyon National Park and pay a $30 admission fee, the family with the higher income pays a lower percentage of its income to access the park, while the family with the lower-income pays a higher percentage. Although the fee is the same amount, it constitutes a more significant burden on the family with the lower income, again making it a regressive tax." That being said I agree, if you work downtown you shouldn't have to pay. Downvoters: I'm seeing a pattern in my posts. I don't care about HN points, if you have a problem with what I'm posting you should respond instead of turning this place into Reddit.
PeterisP 5y ago
I don't know about SF in particular, but for major downtowns "just trying to pass through" just isn't being done in peak hours (when congestion matters the most), the peak traffic consists from the daily commutes to/from work, so the whole point of downtown congestion pricing generally is to push people who commute to their work by car towards some other means of transport. Of coarse, there needs to be some reasonable alternative, otherwise that's meaningless as an incentive.
- post_break 5y ago
  Yeah, maybe they can push to stagger commutes somehow. Incentivize business opening at different hours other than peak times I don't know. It's a hard problem to solve but making people pay to commute just doesn't seem like the right way to do it.
azinman2 5y ago
The congestion is largely due to the bay bridge. People working downtown leaving to go to the East will always clog up that pathway which then ripples. You could force others who also want to get to the East bay to take earlier on-ramps, but the slow traffic to the bridge will continue the slow traffic to get to the bridge downtown, so there’s no good way to avoid that other than have East bay folks take Bart or a bus.

tenebrisalietum 5y ago

From https://investopedia.com/terms/r/regressivetax.asp https://investopedia.com/terms/r/regressivetax.asp: "User Fees ... ...if two families travel to the Grand Canyon National Park and pay a $30 admission fee, the family with the higher income pays a lower percentage of its income to access the park, while the family with the lower-income pays a higher percentage. Although the fee is the same amount, it constitutes a more significant burden on the family with the lower income, again making it a regressive tax." That being said I agree, if you work downtown you shouldn't have to pay. Downvoters: I'm seeing a pattern in my posts. I don't care about HN points, if you have a problem with what I'm posting you should respond instead of turning this place into Reddit.

PeterisP 5y ago

I don't know about SF in particular, but for major downtowns "just trying to pass through" just isn't being done in peak hours (when congestion matters the most), the peak traffic consists from the daily commutes to/from work, so the whole point of downtown congestion pricing generally is to push people who commute to their work by car towards some other means of transport. Of coarse, there needs to be some reasonable alternative, otherwise that's meaningless as an incentive.

post_break 5y ago
Yeah, maybe they can push to stagger commutes somehow. Incentivize business opening at different hours other than peak times I don't know. It's a hard problem to solve but making people pay to commute just doesn't seem like the right way to do it.

azinman2 5y ago

The congestion is largely due to the bay bridge. People working downtown leaving to go to the East will always clog up that pathway which then ripples. You could force others who also want to get to the East bay to take earlier on-ramps, but the slow traffic to the bridge will continue the slow traffic to get to the bridge downtown, so there’s no good way to avoid that other than have East bay folks take Bart or a bus.