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  • Waiting for a ride

Wednesday & Thursday, July 21 & 22 and Carpool, the series!


More of the same on WEDNESDAY morning (gray skies, chilly wind) except that there’s a very long lineup of cars, about 20, waiting. Few riders. I’m in the front seat of an Infinity with a pleasant young guy at the wheel. I tuck a dollar into the cup holder. He thanks me and says, “Gotta pay for those budgets.” He sounds dubious about how the money is spent, and I agree with him when he comments,”Those bridges bring in a lot of money.” I’m about 30 minutes later than usual which may account for the very heavy traffic. This lovely car has a compass which tells us we’re going East, Southwest, and an outside thermometer that reads 55 degrees.

THURSDAY morning’s ride is a Honda CR-V. A no-nonsense red-haired lady is driving. The passenger in the rear meekly offers her $1.25, which the driver sternly inspects and tucks away. I put $1 in the cup holder. No comment. This weather will never change. It is like a time loop that keeps repeating – cold – gray – the 80 freeway. We slog along toward the city, covered in a gray flannel blanket of fog. The driver slips her transponder out of a silver envelope as we approach the toll plaza. I ask her if it is new and she says, “Yes, I didn’t want one before the carpool toll started. I had one 10 years ago and they charged me for toll during the time I was out of town on vacation for 2 weeks. Took 6 months to get the credit.” She says you have to check your FasTrak bills on a regular basis to be sure you are being charged correctly. There’s some advice from the world of no-nonsense to you.

Now here’s some very good stuff and nonsense, too. And something fun for you to check out while we’re waiting for the weather to warm up – a British weekly internet TV show called CARPOOL. Yes, it’s true, and it’s a very clever idea created by British actor Robert Llewellyn. Each segment is a half-hour interview, done in a car, with a well-known personality or celebrity (well, well-known in the U.K., anyway) from the fields of science, theater, tv or technology. Llewellyn produces the show and interviews the guest celebrity while he drives them somewhere in his car. The information is fascinating and as a carpooler you will find it a very familiar setting. Besides the novelty of watching someone driving on the ‘wrong’ side of the car and road!

You can view the series on this link: http://www.llewtube.com

Tuesday, July 20 You get what you pay for


A cold and windy 50-degree morning in Vallejo. Many cars and a few riders. I don’t know if my fellow riders are dazed or just rude. As I walk up to where the line begins several riders just walk right past me, getting into the cars that are lined up. I and the fellow right behind me look at each other and shrug. “Anarchy in the carpool line,” I say and we both laugh and get into a shiny new Toyota Corolla. Cozy warm inside and the lady driver gives us a pleasant greeting. We each give her $1. “We need the money for safe bridges,” she says. “Well, that’s the party line,” I comment. “I’d like to see the budgets for those safe bridges and over-runs.” No comment from either of my companions. Okay.

Off we go and this mild, very suburban and mellow looking plump lady hits the freeway at 70 plus mph! She’s driving like a maniac. As we hurtle down the 80 Freeway a small truck pulls out in front of us to join the carpool lane. The driver does not slow down until I gasp and then she tailgates the guy. Near Berkeley all the lanes are full and moving at about 45 mph, and I can breathe easier.

There are a number of stories carpoolers tell about drivers they wish they’d never been in a car with – check out ridenow.org, a great site that gives good information on car pooling in the bay area and has a great message board with listings of dangerous drivers, including car descriptions and license plate numbers. Our lady today should certainly be on that list. Unfortunately, when I’m in a hurry in the morning, and waiting in the carpool line, I just don’t pay attention to people’s license numbers, and even though I describe drivers and their cars in this blog, I seldom recognize anyone I’ve ever ridden with. Well, there are a few that stand out in my mind.

I like this quote from an unknown author: “It takes 8,460 bolts to assemble an automobile, and one nut to scatter it all over the road.” Avoid the nuts. Pay your toll, cross your fingers and be nice. CG

Monday, July 19 Other bridges, other woes


An easy beginning to the week – few riders, many cars. My ride from Vallejo is a Honda Civic with a petite Latina at the wheel. The other passenger and I each give her a dollar bill which she graciously accepts and thanks us for. As we leave the north bay behind we move from a summer morning into late autumn. The sky darkens, the air chills and it’s more like early winter as we move closer to the City. The view of Alcatraz from the Bay Bridge looks like a dark cold tomb. But the fog will lift, the sun will rise and the tourists in their shorts and tank tops will warm up. Traffic’s heavy and the toll gates are packed.

Across the bay at the Golden Gate Bridge, the Marin carpoolers who are still reeling from their newly imposed $3 toll, are facing their first day with FasTrak only – no more cash allowed for carpoolers. They were given 3 weeks after the July 1 toll began to either pay with cash or FasTrak. Plus they have to go through a staffed lane, so that their carpool status can be verified. The Golden Gate Bridge Authority says about 2% of their bridge traffic is carpool. They are planning to make $1.3 million a year in additional revenue from the new $3 toll, which will go towards replacing a $132 million budget deficit over the next 5 years. Yikes. – CG

Friday, July 16 Days of Contention


Casual Commuters lining up in Lincoln Park, San Francisco

A friend sent me this very funny photo and I had to pass it along. I need a laugh these days. Commuting has not been much fun lately, not that it ever really was, but it used to have a more comfortable, friendly feel about it. And that is going, going, maybe gone.

This issue of paying or not paying got to me last night. I waited at the Beale Street carpool line for nearly 45 minutes. As I was waiting I asked the rider behind me if he paid toll and how much. “$1.25” he promptly replied. I said “Do you realize that if both riders pay $1.25 the driver pays nothing at all?” “Oh no”, he quickly said. “The driver has to pay for the transponder.”

Before I could reply that the transponder does not cost you money, just the toll, our ride pulled up – a new BMW. As we got seated the rider I’d been talking to, now in the back seat, handed over his $1.25. I got buckled in and laid $1 on the cup rest area. The driver tapped her fingernail on my dollar bill and said, “Do you have a quarter?” When I reluctantly got it out she said with a sarcastic tone, “Thanks, this is really costing me a lot of money.”

A new BMW costs upwards of $50,000. The driver spent a good portion of what seemed a never-ending ride (heavy traffic, rear-enders) to Vallejo talking about the wonders of her BMW, trips she’d taken, cars she’d rented and she wound up having a regular BMW bonding session with the guy in the rear seat. Turned out he too owns a BMW along with a couple of Hondas. These folks are financially challenged? She can’t afford to pay a third of the $2.50 toll?

I feel angry. Even before the tolls began this month, much of the time I sensed an attitude of ‘master-serf’ between drivers and riders. The drivers assuming they are the only ones doing the favor by condescending to give a ride to the huddled masses in the carpool lines. When I discussed this with my daughter, a former Vallejo-SF commuter, she said she avoided the casual carpool for that very reason – the ‘attitude’. As I’ve mentioned in some of these blogs, I’d hoped that the SHARING of the toll would create a more congenial solidarity between drivers and riders, a ‘we’re-all-in-this-together’ bond. And at the very least, the fact that the riders are putting up money for the ride should level the playing field a bit, doncha think?

As I’ve acknowledged before, the drivers do pay gas, parking, insurance, but that is not a new expense. They have always done that, and never asked for reimbursement for those expenses, that I’m aware of. And I do not mind a bit paying a PORTION of the toll. But as I attempted to explain to both the ‘I OWN A BMW’ commuters, if two riders each pay $1.25, the driver is paying nothing towards the toll. They are still getting the free ride. And yes, the transponder is billed in advance each month, but with everyone contributing to the toll, they will get at least two-thirds of that back. Had I not been so angry, I would have asked this impoverished driver why she didn’t pick up a third rider. That would have meant $3.75 towards the burden of her commute and a profit on last night’s ride. Not only was I subjected to her blathering about her expensive car, I had to listen to her choice of music, which she sang or whistled along with from time to time. Not my choice and not pleasant, even though I was paying for the ride.

Some have commented that $1.25 is damn cheap for a ride between San Francisco and Vallejo and that is true. The issue here is more than just the money or the amount of money. As a matter of fact I spend more than $1.25 each way on my commute. I also spend $4 a day on MUNI and pay for the gas to get to and from the carpool lot. Most of us at this point in history do have money issues, including myself. But in a situation like the casual carpool, started by commuters and maintained and nourished by commuters, taking advantage of a few bucks from riders really smacks of nasty, greedy, selfish behavior. Doing that is just as short-sighted and mean-spirited as the Bay Area Toll Authority’s initiating carpool tolls in the first place. And that’s what makes me mad.

This morning, Friday, was a sunny morning in Vallejo, traffic looked light, there were cars lined up and waiting. Nice and easy. I got in the back seat of an older Chrysler sedan. The couple in the front seat were having an intense conversation about kids and a crisis with a college-age child. As we neared Richmond we entered heavy fog and it looked thick all the way into the City. A splendid tall white egret was walking about in the grasses near the freeway at Emeryville looking at once magnificent and out of place in the freeway setting. The toll gates were all nearly empty. As we got onto the bridge I interrupted the conversation and asked “What is your toll policy?” Without pause, the driver said “1.25.”

Sigh. Off to the weekend. Have a good one. CG

Thursday, July 15 The commute from Vallejo


7:05 a.m. VALLEJO L o n g line of riders waiting for a ride this morning, but the weather is warming and it looks like a lovely day in the offing. I bask in the early morning sun while I wait. It takes about 15 minutes and then I’m in the front seat of a big Lexus SUV. Friendly lady driver smiles and greets us as we get in. The rider in back immediately puts a dollar in the cup holder so once again I pull out my dollar. Traffic is heavy, but moving. There’s a huge gridlock on the east-bound side of the freeway. Roadwork near Hercules has reduced the 4 lanes of traffic on the other side of the freeway to 1 lane so it’s really jammed up. A number of speeding motorcycles zoom past us, darting in and out of the lanes at about 80 mph. The driver and I agree there are more motorcycles on the road and for the most part, they drive too fast. Lite rock on the radio and little talk in the car.

I read in the Vallejo Times-Herald (July 6, “Increase in Bay Area Bridge Tolls Could Help Public Transit”) some interesting statistics about subtle changes in the Vallejo commute, post-new tolls. There was a 10 to 15 percent increase in commuting Vallejo bus riders on July 1, the first day of the new tolls, and more commuters are riding the ferries, although the count is not yet in on that. Vallejo Public Works Directory Gary Leach is hopeful that this is a trend. “We’re hoping we will see more people taking the ferry because we’ve had a reduction in riders. Less people are commuting because of the economy.” Vallejo ferry riders have diminished by about 20 percent in recent years, as the fare has gone up and jobs have gone down.

The toll plaza is paralyzed this morning, especially in the cash lane. All waiting to pay their $6 toll. We are delighted to speed past and are in the city by 7:50.

Wednesday, July 14 Riding and Counting


Several carpool rides have passed since my last blog on Monday morning. MONDAY EVENING: the return commute was nice and easy. The line in San Francisco was short and moving quickly. I squeezed into the back seat of a Honda 2-door. There was no mention of toll. The driver and rider in the front seat commute together daily. I join their lively conversation about walking and exercise, and learn that the woman passenger regularly walks the Vallejo waterfront as do I. We talk about what a great 3-mile walk it is. I did it frequently during my Bay to Breakers ‘training’. The driver says he used to jog and was in great shape, jogging around Lake Merritt in 9 minutes! He laments his out of shape condition, and we encourage him to walk the waterfront. As we pass through the toll booth his FasTrack transponder does not beep, and he says it hasn’t for awhile. He also thinks the FasTrack people are overcharging him. I urge him to call them, get a new transponder and be sure they know he uses it in the carpool lane. Before I get out of the car I leave $1 for toll which he greatly appreciates. TUESDAY MORNING: No waiting this morning and I ride in a Ford 2-door pickup truck. The driver, who introduces himself – Brian – works in construction. The truck is a company truck, so no toll worries here. He’s resigned to the tolls, “it’s the economy “, he says. “The times we live in.” We chat about family and work. A nice ride. WEDNESDAY MORNING (TODAY): I’m off to a late start. Our hot water heater stopped working last night, so my go-to-work preparations were delayed by having to deal with very cold water. Wakes you up! But there’s no line of riders today, just a long line of cars waiting and I am in the front seat of a black Mitsubishi Evolution X. It looks like there’s $1.25 already in the cup holder (from the rear seat passenger), so I add mine. The driver is a young Asian-American looking snappy in a crisp blue-striped shirt and suit pants. I see the jacket and tie in the back seat. He’s an aggressive driver, doing 80 mph and flying by the three non-carpool lanes until a Camry pulls out in front of us. True to form, he tailgates, but then traffic gets heavy in all the lanes and we’re all moving at about 45 mph to the toll area.

As I ride, I count. I am paying an additional $50 per month toll contribution – $600 a year. The BATA (Bay Area Toll Authority) estimates that the carpool toll alone will raise approximately $30 million dollars a year. The revenue from the carpool toll will go towards the seismic retrofit projects on the Antioch and Dumbarton bridges, estimated at $750 million to complete.

It will also go towards the overruns on the $6 billion (plus) cost of the Bay Bridge retrofit. Steve Heminger, Executive Director of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, a 3-person panel overseeing the Bay Bridge Project, said “any cost over-runs on the Bay Bridge will have to be covered through toll revenue.”

The retrofit project became a priority after the October 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. You undoubtedly remember the chilling photographs of the bridge buckling during the quake, when a motorist was killed on the east span of the Bay Bridge. In 1992 a UC Berkeley team estimated retrofit of the east span to cost up to $200 million. In 1995, Caltrans proposed replacing rather than retrofitting the bridge, due to the high cost, however the report on a replacement for the east span came in at $843 million in 1996. Go figure. $200 million versus $843 million? In 1997 Governor Wilson announced that the eastern span would be rebuilt, and workshops, design submissions, panel recommendations were in the works until June, 1998 when the Metropolitan Transportation Commission approved the bridge design at a cost of $1.5 billion. What? January 2002 saw the east span groundbreaking, with Caltrans announcing the new bridge would open in 2007. In March 2003 Caltrans increased the cost estimate to $3 billion, citing the unique scale and complexity of the project. Estimates continued to increase, until last December when the estimated cost reached $6.3 billion. Yikes. Whatever happened to that 1992 $200 million retrofit estimate?

$30 million annual revenue from carpool toll
$750 million retrofit Antioch and Dumbarton Bridges
$6.3 billion Bay Bridge rebuild

My $50 a month: chump change. In every sense of the word.

Monday, July 12 East meets West


Here I am Monday blah morning and the ride is a black Honda Accord. Sort of a glam driver. She’s wearing a wonderful green satin blouse under a military-styled short jacket with a leopard print scarf, big silver hoop earrings, long black wavy hair and foxy glasses. Lotsa style. The guy in the back seat puts up his toll money right away so of course I feel I must too. (I was actually going to do nothing this morning and see what happened). Traffic and weather are a repeat of last week: cold, gray, lite. A decent weekend, however; I think it got all the way up into the 70s.

I just read a funny piece in this week’s NEW YORK MAGAZINE (July 19, 2010, “Diary of a Cab Share”). In February of this year New York’s Taxi & Limousine Commission launched a group-rides/cab share program which allows passengers to share cabs with strangers in exchange for a fare discount. Sound familiar, casual carpoolers? Cabs pick riders up from 3 designated spots, or passengers can hail cabs with riders already in them. The fare is fixed, depending on how far you travel, all within Manhattan – $6 is the maximum fare.

The article in NEW YORK MAGAZINE was written by Beth Shapouri, a reporter who rode undercover in one of the cab share rides. Her attempts at getting the other riders engaged in a conversation made me laugh – I’ve gone through the same thing as Commuter Gal gathering material for this blog.

After several unsuccessful attempts at conversation, Beth asks the driver, “Been doing this cab-share thing long? The Driver responds “Yes, a few years. The people are nice.” Beth asks, “But no one talks?” The Driver says “Mostly they keep to themselves. People are polite.” At this one of the passengers with earphones pointedly shifts in her seat. Beth stops talking.

On-line comments on Beth’s ‘interview’ include “Were we supposed to feel scorn for your fellow riders for not wanting to talk to you? I wound up empathizing with them.” And “Oh my lord. The people are in the rideshare to save money, not because they want some morning carpool chat time. I would’ve strangled you.”

The hope for the cab share program was to decrease traffic, give the cabbies more money, and make fares less for the riders. Unfortunately, it hasn’t clicked. I don’t think the incentives are big enough and judging from the article, it sounds like NY riders don’t like the shared aspect much, anyway. My ride this morning is a silent one and I leave it at that.

More pool tomorrow. CG

Friday, July 9 The first week ends


It’s light Friday here in the land of the cold gray mornings, and just a few riders and then a few cars and off we all go. As the car before mine pulled away, I was taken aback to see a hand written sign in the front window – “Toll Required”. No questions about to pay or not to pay in that ride!

I join 3 ladies in a Rav4 L SUV. When I pull out a dollar, the young lovely girl next to me in the back seat, whispers “After”. I nod, and tuck my dollar bill away. Okay. Everyone’s wearing jeans in honor of Friday. I’m in my gym clothes ready for a quick pre-work session at Club One.

There are hardly any cars out here at all today and I see we’re going 70+ mph. A rosary swings from the rear-view mirror and an odd little Japanese stuffed animal/creature sits on the dash. The Mehserle verdict is in (involuntary manslaughter for the BART shooting). I saw the announcement on Channel 4 news this morning before I left the house. The news showed empty Oakland BART stations, reflecting, I guess, people’s fear about being out and about on such a tense day. There’s been some property damage in downtown Oakland and lots of stores are boarded up. Waiting now for the judge to pass sentence. No matter what the outcome there’s no winners in this tragedy.

Within minutes we’re at the toll gates and even the Cash Only lanes are nearly empty. And then we are at the drop-off and passing our dollars up to the driver. And so the first week of tolling ends. Have a great weekend. I’ll be pooling around again on Monday.

Thursday, July 8 To Pay or Not to Pay


The evening carpool home last night (Wednesday, July 7) was fast and uneventful. A nice ride in a Jeep SUV. 50’s guy driving asks for toll contribution when we get in. He plugs in some sort of traffic device that is a running commentary on the local traffic. He also has NPR tuned in and later, KDFC (classical music station). All good sounds, except for the traffic device.

This morning (Thursday, July 8) a ride was pulling up for me as I walked up to the carpool line area. Looks like another bay area summer morning on the freeway – gray skies, light traffic. This was a Chevrolet 2-seat pickup truck. A UPS-uniformed driver was driving, which always makes me feel more secure – they spend the day driving in torturous traffic so the commute should be a piece of cake for them, right? I voluntarily drop $1.25 into his cup holder and he chuckles. “Oh, ok”, he shrugs. He says he doesn’t care one way or the other. “I saw a woman get out of a car in the line yesterday”, he says. “She wouldn’t pay the toll, so I guess the driver kicked her out.” He says he’s heard other riders say they won’t pay.

Now that we’re sort of settling into the shock of paying a toll in the carpool lane, I’ve been thinking about how this affects the driver/rider relationship. In a sense, riders have ALWAYS been paying. Before the actual FasTrack toll situation, our presence in a commute car saved the driver $4 each way – that’s $8 that the carpool driver is ahead of the non-carpool folks. Carpool riders now, even with the toll, are saving the driver $3.50 on the Bay Bridge and $2.50 on the Carquinez, or $6 a day if you come from Vallejo. And if the riders, in addition, pay the $2.50 toll for the driver, its $5 across the Carquinez Bridge and $6 across the Bay Bridge that’s in the driver’s pocket.

Yes, I know the driver pays insurance, gas, parking, but if they drove alone they would still pay insurance, gas, parking PLUS the $11 a day toll.

So – to pay or not to pay. What’s fair? And if riders are coughing up the entire toll round trip, should we have more say in what’s on the radio, the temperature of the car, the conversation?

I was anticipating (hoping) that the mutual sharing of the toll would promote more of a partnership between rider and driver, but am beginning to wonder if it’s just going to become an issue of contention. “You’re getting a ride, dammit, so pay up and shut up!” Or “We’re paying your toll, so turn off that damn hip hop!”

July 6 evening and July 7 morning -Coming and Going Observations


July 6, Tuesday evening, San Francisco

I got to the carpool line at 5 Tuesday evening and perhaps beat the crowd. There was a line up of about 20 riders, but the cars were flowing along. A great self-appointed ‘monitor’ – Brotha Clint – is keeping us all moving. “That’s b-r-o-t-h-a, not brother” he tells me when I ask him his name. He coaxes 3 riders into most cars instead of the required 2, and flags the cars along. He’s terrific! I’m in the front seat of a Chrysler sedan with two riders in the back seat. A lovely car. We pull out our toll dollars, but the driver turns them down. “You’re keeping me out of a traffic jam”, he says. We all say thank you. He’s a cute Kevin Costner-looking guy. He says that the increase in toll will prompt him to take BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit – our ‘subway’ system) more often on days when he misses the carpool hours. Traffic’s not too bad until we cross the Bay Bridge and then it’s hallelujah time for the carpool lane. We are rolling along past the 4 crawling lanes of single drivers.

July 7, Wednesday morning, Vallejo

A short line of riders and not a long wait, thankfully. It’s another chilly gray morning. I turn down the first car – a tiny sporty roadster. My ride is a Land Rover, the driver a young woman with long brown hair, wearing jeans and a black and white checkered shirt. A very serious 30’s something. She asks for toll when we get in and I and the other passenger each give her $1.25. The GPS on the dash is keeping us on track, lest we forget where we’re going. A highly fragrant orange pine tree air freshener hangs by the driver’s key ring. Nice, light traffic – even lighter in our lane. I don’t see a transponder but just before the toll gates the driver reaches across the front seat to the glove box and pulls it out, still in its silver wrapper and slides it against the windshield. She wraps it back up after we pass the toll area. I noticed the Cash Only line at the toll gates was long and barely moving. The single-driver FasTrak lanes were backed up a bit, but moving through.