Toll on the New Bay Bridge

Bob wrote:

bizguy wrote:

I think you'll see many folks from Pensacola that commute to GB to work at the fast food places and other minimum wage jobs affected.

They could help the pain with that if they want to.

The Garcon Point Bridge is associated with the Florida "Sun Pass". But all that does is give regular commuters a 50% discount. And if you travel the bridge every day to work and back that's still expensive as shit.

But in Pinellas County (St. Pete), an annual pass for all three toll "bayways" can be had for $50/year with unlimited toll crossings. Which is affordable for daily commuters.

Yea right! Try collecting that discount. The Sunpass wants you to give them your credit-card info so they can withdraw your money and put it into your Sunpass account. I would not do that because too many people had reported problems with the Sunpass accounting....Instead I would stop at the office and deposit the money each month. For 6 months they never gave me a discount...they had an excuse each month.

Bob wrote:

PACEDOG#1 wrote:

Government never makes any sense and that is why they won't do this, but why don't you forward this to the powers that be and see what they say?

This replacement Bay Bridge proposal got started about 5 years ago when the FDOT first said the bridge was gonna have to be replaced.
At that time I wrote a viewpoint piece for the PNJ outlining the same idea and they published that Viewpoint.
But they don't pay any attention to what private citizens suggest.
With my proposal it will all come down to how much clout those Hgwy 98 merchants in Gulf Breeze have to influence the politicians to keep the existing route for the new bridge. AND whether or not the laws even allow using that National Park land for something like this (and I doubt it).
Things like this are not always determined by what makes sense. lol

The road to the bridge will be on Federal property....not the bridge. There can 't be a ban on roads...if so Hwy 98 goes right through the Park as well as the road through Ft. Pickens and the road to Navarre.

Joanimaroni wrote:

The road to the bridge will be on Federal property....not the bridge. There can 't be a ban on roads...if so Hwy 98 goes right through the Park as well as the road through Ft. Pickens and the road to Navarre.

Hadn't thought about that. Excellent point!

Bob wrote:

Joanimaroni wrote:

The road to the bridge will be on Federal property....not the bridge. There can 't be a ban on roads...if so Hwy 98 goes right through the Park as well as the road through Ft. Pickens and the road to Navarre.

Hadn't thought about that. Excellent point!

I have my moments.

They just said on the 6PM news (weartv) the announcement would be made Thursday.

If the federal government wasn't flushing so many hundreds of billions of dollars down the toilet (like on those so-called "wars" for example) it could be spending it's revenues sensibly on things like infrastructure like it once did.
There was a time when this whole new bridge thing could have been accomplished by extending I-110 across the bay to it's terminus at 98 in Gulf Breeze. The bridge and connectors could have been built with a combination of FDOT funds and federal Interstate funds and there would have been no need for a toll. But that's no longer possible because there isn't any more federal money to improve infrastructure.
That's also why so many of us wanted most of the economic stimulus money to go towards infrastructure improvements instead of pissing it away on all those earmarks (like in the case of the local stimulus money being spent on an environmental study for Studerville).

Well welcome to reality Pensacola. Here in Northern Illinois, just about all the interstates, expressways are toll. especially here in Dupage County.No problem here. We have a thing called the I Pass and it works well with not stopping to pay tolls and it keeps the interstates moving, except during rush hour and that is caused by too many cars on the road. I really dont mind paying a toll here because all of the expressways are well lighted and maintained. About a year ago, they raised the tolls and alot of people said they were going to boycott the toll roads and take side streets. Well that lasted about a month because the side streets take longer.

I really dont know why Floridans are surprised by this. Didnt Governor Scott give away huge tax discounts to corporations. Maybe one of these days, America will wake up and see the advantages of paying income taxes.

The Garcon Bridge toll is $3.50.
If they use that figure for the new bridge and they charge the toll in both directions that would be $7. Add $1 for each trip over the Bob Sikes Bridge.
That means if a tourist is staying at Pensacola Beach he will have to pay 8 bucks every time he comes into town for anything.
Also means locals will be paying $8 for each trip to the beach.

I would predict three things from this.
One, a lot more tourists will then choose to visit the beaches east or west of here which have no tolls.
Two, the tourists who do stay on Pensacola Beach will want to come into town a lot less often which is not good for Pensacola merchants.
Three, Perdido Key and the Alabama beaches will start looking a lot purtier to the Escambia locals.
lol