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News & ArtsMonday, January 9, 2012
Transportation / Money 520 Bridge Cheapskates Ruin My Morning
Posted by Goldy on Mon, Jan 9, 2012 at 10:15 AM
It took me half a fucking hour to cross the I-90 bridge westbound this morning, between the Island Crest onramp and the Rainier Avenue exit. Fuck.
Here's the deal. I live in southeast Seattle, but my baby mama lives on Mercer Island, where our daughter goes to high school. Which means I cross the I-90 bridge more days than not, either dropping my daughter off or picking her up, or both. On days like today, I'll make two round-trip crossings, both of them during rush hour.
Say what you will, but this arrangement is by circumstance, not choice. Real life isn't always convenient... and for me, it just got a helluva lot less so with the start of 520 tolling.
The alternative—tolling I-90 so that the traffic evens out between the two bridges—isn't exactly an attractive option for me either. At $3.50 each way, my two roundtrip rush hour crossings would cost me an extra $14.00 a day. Even as a part-time parent, I'd be looking at paying more a year in I-90 tolls than my car is actually worth.
And yes, I suppose my daughter could take transit, but we're talking two bus transfers, and at least an hour commute. It's hard enough getting a teenager out of bed at 6:30 AM, let alone out the door.
The only other option—spending less time with my daughter—isn't one.
Yeah, I know: boo-hoo, world's smallest violin, and all that. But for all the commuters thrilled to pay the 520 toll for the privilege of zipping across the lake at 65 mph, there are many more people like me for whom the new normal amounts to a huge new expense and/or inconvenience. That said, this is the new normal, and as expensive/irritating as it is for me, it doesn't shake my support for regional tolling as both a funding mechanism, and a means of (gasp) "social engineering."
But I don't have to like it.
2
I wish we could toll I-90 too, but that darn law prohibits tolling except to raise money to pay for stuff on the road that's tolled. Grump. That would even things out for ya nicely...
Hang in there - projection show an evening out won't take too much longer as people wise up to what Martin Duke posted about on STB this morning.
Hang in there - projection show an evening out won't take too much longer as people wise up to what Martin Duke posted about on STB this morning.
3
Actually, if you support it, I think you DO have to like it. Well, no. You have to PRETEND like you like it.
Yes, really, I believe this is true. I think an UPDATED is in order.
Yes yes yes, I believe you are going to have to grow the fuck up and retract this badboy.
Yes, really, I believe this is true. I think an UPDATED is in order.
Yes yes yes, I believe you are going to have to grow the fuck up and retract this badboy.
4
This is why I don't really like tolls to fund road projects. I much prefer to just pay taxes and have the roads built from that. Tolls are even more regressive than most of our taxes.
Would dropping her at the fly over stop at Rainier and I-90 work?
Would dropping her at the fly over stop at Rainier and I-90 work?
5
So your daughter lives with you but goes to high school on Mercer Island? Is this even legal? Why not send her to your neighborhood school?
6
If you're driving to MI every day, it sounds like your daughter attends school in a district that she doesn't reside in. If you want to her to stay there, I wouldn't be so cavalier about broadcasting that subterfuge on the internet.
7
Oh Goldy, I feel for ya. Traffic congestion is one of those "wicked" problems that are just not easily solved. Congestion pricing is the only thing that really works, but the very serious downside is just what you've described: it gives poor folk the shaft. The only long-term solution is to restructure our whole society so that it's realistic to get around without a car. But we're a long way from that.
When I was a kid living south of Issaquah and attending Bellevue High School for a while (summer school) my parents made me ride my bike the 25 mile round trip. But I'm not sure I'd recommend their parenting choices.
When I was a kid living south of Issaquah and attending Bellevue High School for a while (summer school) my parents made me ride my bike the 25 mile round trip. But I'm not sure I'd recommend their parenting choices.
8
Didn't we build a light-rail line on I-90 and down I-405 decades ago and streamline bus service to and from the LR stations?
Oh, no, that was my alternate reality. That sucks, dude.
LR takes me an hour door-to-door. But if I drive, I can get to work in less than a half an hour and use the extra half an hour to work OT to pay for parking for three days... knowing this, it gets really difficult to make myself take the train.
Oh, no, that was my alternate reality. That sucks, dude.
LR takes me an hour door-to-door. But if I drive, I can get to work in less than a half an hour and use the extra half an hour to work OT to pay for parking for three days... knowing this, it gets really difficult to make myself take the train.
9
it will get better as people realize it's worth the toll to go fast.
@5: if her mother lives on MI, it's plenty legal. and MI schools are better than SPS. sad, but they are.
@5: if her mother lives on MI, it's plenty legal. and MI schools are better than SPS. sad, but they are.
10
I do feel bad for you, but more in a schadenfreude self-satisfaction than anything else.
Anyway, good on you for choosing time with your daughter over the alternatives.
Anyway, good on you for choosing time with your daughter over the alternatives.
12
I've been where you are, commute-wise -- different details, but same outcome. Hours on the road because the particular school matters, and because this is our version of doing whatever it takes to give the kid the best start in life. It might be slim comfort during a commute that feels endless, but those high school years go by in a heartbeat. Hang in there.
13
@5, @6: My daughter lives with me about half the time (we have a very informal schedule). So no, that's not illegal, or even remotely improper.
14
Get your daughter a bike, and drop her off at the I-90 overpass of Rainier. Now she can ride the bus (or her bike) to MI, and have convenient transport around MI when she gets there. One less car on I-90 as a bonus.
15
@ 3, the day Goldy does even the slightest thing that can be construed as an admission that he was less than 100% correct, is the day Rick Santorum comes out as a leather-clad dungeon master, Tim Eyman submits an altruistic initiative, and Pat Robertson converts to Unitarianism.
16
@Goldy, instead of being your usual half-empty glass self, think of the extra time you and your daughter get one on one.
19
Parents these days! If we're going to boo-hoo and be entirely self-involved this morning, how about if I cry a river over all the coddling parents who create traffic jams around my house twice a day, as they line up for blocks to drop off and pick up their lazy, lazy children?
She's practically an adult. Let her find her own way to school, just as I (and probably you) had to do when we were teenagers. It blows my mind how pampered children are nowadays.
She's practically an adult. Let her find her own way to school, just as I (and probably you) had to do when we were teenagers. It blows my mind how pampered children are nowadays.
20
@ 19 Wow, someone a little bitter, I think it good for parents to pick up and drop off their kids, it can create strong bonds between the parent and a child. Plus it's part of a parent's responsibility. Kids are kids till they turn 18 and even then many still needs a parent's help.
22
I'm sorry King County public transit failed your daughter. I bused it home from school in my teen years, but I didn't go to school here.
23
This is just as by choice as commuting across 520 for work.
Choices:
1. Send her to a Seattle school.
2. Use the bus.
3. Move to the Eastside.
Choices:
1. Send her to a Seattle school.
2. Use the bus.
3. Move to the Eastside.
26
Regarding students who live outside the MI school district:
School officials realized that the district was shrinking a few years ago, and started allowing non-district students to attend. [they want to keep the enrollment numbers high to justify the massive school budget]. So, even if Goldy's baby mama didn't live on MI, their kid could still attend MISD.
School officials realized that the district was shrinking a few years ago, and started allowing non-district students to attend. [they want to keep the enrollment numbers high to justify the massive school budget]. So, even if Goldy's baby mama didn't live on MI, their kid could still attend MISD.
27
@20 I was pointing out how incredibly self-involved Goldy's post is, how it only focuses on his personal needs. This is a city; deal with it, don't whine about it.
28
*shrug* I went to high school on MI and split my time between there and Bellevue College for Running Start. Not to mention working a part time job in Bellevue.
I took the bus and used the commute time for homework.
I took the bus and used the commute time for homework.
29
Drive her to the freeway bus stop at I-90 & Rainier. She can take the bus across I-90. Have the mother drive her from the bus stop on Mercer Island to school.
Or if princess doesn't want to deal with taking two buses she can just go to a local Seattle school and make new friends and not have to compete with 20 valedictorians.
Or if princess doesn't want to deal with taking two buses she can just go to a local Seattle school and make new friends and not have to compete with 20 valedictorians.
31
I used to beat off when crossing the 520, I mean I like rubbing one out before I go to work. Now I can't release until I am in the parking garage. If you were a 520 commuter you might have seen my vinegar face.
32
Here are some solutions for your hard life:
1) Send your daughter to a great Seattle school that IS NOT on the other side of a brudge.
2) Take the bus with her.
3) Make her take transit. Life's hard, and never cheap. Two transfers suck, but once they screw with Metro this year and in the future, it'll be the norm.
4) Do what you do every day and GET OVER IT. I know several people who always took I-90 and now have heavier traffic. They leave earlier. Those who took 520 now take transit or suck it up.
Blaming others for using the road because YOU are using them is ridiculous.
1) Send your daughter to a great Seattle school that IS NOT on the other side of a brudge.
2) Take the bus with her.
3) Make her take transit. Life's hard, and never cheap. Two transfers suck, but once they screw with Metro this year and in the future, it'll be the norm.
4) Do what you do every day and GET OVER IT. I know several people who always took I-90 and now have heavier traffic. They leave earlier. Those who took 520 now take transit or suck it up.
Blaming others for using the road because YOU are using them is ridiculous.
33
"Why not send her to your neighborhood school?"
Too many black kids probably at Goldy's neighborhood school. , Mercer is nice and white. You know, the same reason Goldy doesn't want tolls on his road - do as I say, not as I do. Classis Seattle liberal hypocrit.
Too many black kids probably at Goldy's neighborhood school. , Mercer is nice and white. You know, the same reason Goldy doesn't want tolls on his road - do as I say, not as I do. Classis Seattle liberal hypocrit.
34
As an alumni of MIHS, I can state authoritatively that however "good" a school it is, which benefit is almost entirely its ability to get her into a better college, sending your kid there is tantamount to child abuse. The place is suffused with pure evil, and its separation from anything resembling the real world will damage your kid far worse than the allegedly bad teachers at Garfield or Rainier Beach.
On the other hand, dropping her off and picking her up, and taking her off the island out of school hours, will indeed cut down on her drug-taking hours. But she may still have trouble growing a soul.
On the other hand, dropping her off and picking her up, and taking her off the island out of school hours, will indeed cut down on her drug-taking hours. But she may still have trouble growing a soul.
35
I hear ya, Goldy. I got my first taste last week of the 520 ripple effect here in Lynnwood. Folks are going around the north end of the lake, both directions, on a road network that was already at capacity. I ended up walking the last two miles of what had been a bus ride, a gridlock avoidance technique that can't be an everyday option. (weather, old legs)
Once Community Transit here cuts their system again next month, I'm going to have to join that gridlock. ugh.
Once Community Transit here cuts their system again next month, I'm going to have to join that gridlock. ugh.
36
@ 34, you must have graduated 35 years ago. How can your experience have an iota of relevence today?
37
So Goldy wants all of our children to go to school with gangbangers but wants his 'bused' to a Mercer Island school with rich, white republicans.
Okey dokey. Got it.
Okey dokey. Got it.
39
In entire regions of the country (and world) toll bridges are a given.
Count our blessings we didn't have one till now here. This is how the world works.
Count our blessings we didn't have one till now here. This is how the world works.
40
Goldy, you missed Saturday Night Live's "White People's Problems" skit by two days.
Joe@39: We paid for the current 520 bridge via tolls. (and both Narrows bridges, among others)
Joe@39: We paid for the current 520 bridge via tolls. (and both Narrows bridges, among others)
41
I think I-90 should be tolled at a much lower rate, with the money used to fund maintenance and inspections of the bridge. And I think once the new 520 bridge is paid off, the tolls should be lowered and the money used for the same purpose.
But the optimal course of events would have been to wait on all tolling until East Link was completed.
But the optimal course of events would have been to wait on all tolling until East Link was completed.
42
You're blaming "cheapskates" for clogging the I-90 bridge and then suggest that tolling I-90 isn't attractive because you'd have to pay $14 a day? Fucking hypocrite.
43
Cars are for the wealthy.
Floating bridges across large bodies of water are for wealthy communities.
Floating bridges across large bodies of water are for wealthy communities.
44
For what it's worth - tolling both bridges for funding of 520 would probably result in a lower toll.
Regardless, I'm having the opposite situation, and am very happy about it. Less traffic getting to 520 has made getting around Madison Valley and Montlake a lot easier, so easier to get from my daughter's school to my job. I'm loving these tolls :-)
Regardless, I'm having the opposite situation, and am very happy about it. Less traffic getting to 520 has made getting around Madison Valley and Montlake a lot easier, so easier to get from my daughter's school to my job. I'm loving these tolls :-)
45
@36, Mercer Island is still all-white and all-rich. If anything, the segregation of the island socially and economically is much greater today than before, due to the extraordinary concentration of wealth in the hands of the island-dwelling class in the past three decades.
I'm serious: Mercer Island emanates evil. It comes up out of the very ground.
I'm serious: Mercer Island emanates evil. It comes up out of the very ground.
46
As the old saying goes: you're not stuck in traffic; you ARE the traffic. Four trips a day across the bridge, two as an SOV? Look in the mirror and tell me that's right.
47
Tolls are flat taxes. I'm against flat taxes (they're terribly regressive), therefore I'm against tolls. I'm surprised that Goldy would be in favor of a tax that hurts poor people (like himself) so much more than rich people.
48
This strikes me as every bit as legitimate as an atheist (former) Jew complaining about "goys" fucking up the movie going experience on Christmas day.
49
@47 Tolls are not flat taxes. Taxes (and death) are certain. Tolls are avoidable. I support tolls, especially tolls on stupid commutes such as Goldy's.
50
This strikes me as every bit as legitimate as an atheist (former) Jew complaining about how "goys" are fucking up the moviegoing experience on Christmas Day.
51
And yes, I suppose my daughter could take transit, but we're talking two bus transfers, and at least an hour commute. It's hard enough getting a teenager out of bed at 6:30 AM, let alone out the door.
This sounds like the exact complaint given by people for driving to work instead of taking the bus.
Say what you will, but this arrangement is by circumstance, not choice.
No. You could always live on MI as well, and take the bus in to work.
...
It seems that you're hurting by the very thing that The Stranger stands for: Tolling, especially tolling as social engineering. The Stranger's stance: "If you're the one hurt by tolling...fuck you." So, basically...you got fucked by the company that's paying your salary, just like every other working schmoe.
This sounds like the exact complaint given by people for driving to work instead of taking the bus.
Say what you will, but this arrangement is by circumstance, not choice.
No. You could always live on MI as well, and take the bus in to work.
...
It seems that you're hurting by the very thing that The Stranger stands for: Tolling, especially tolling as social engineering. The Stranger's stance: "If you're the one hurt by tolling...fuck you." So, basically...you got fucked by the company that's paying your salary, just like every other working schmoe.
52
That said, this is the new normal, and as expensive/irritating as it is for me, it doesn't shake my support for regional tolling as both a funding mechanism, and a means of (gasp) "social engineering."
But I don't have to like it.
P.S. Yes you do. You can either change your support for tolling or not fucking bitch. It's your own fucking fault this happened. So, you can change your own fucking attitude, because you're a hypocrite otherwise. Bend over and fuck yourself with a smile.
But I don't have to like it.
P.S. Yes you do. You can either change your support for tolling or not fucking bitch. It's your own fucking fault this happened. So, you can change your own fucking attitude, because you're a hypocrite otherwise. Bend over and fuck yourself with a smile.
53
The alternative—tolling I-90 so that the traffic evens out between the two bridges—isn't exactly an attractive option for me either. At $3.50 each way, my two roundtrip rush hour crossings would cost me an extra $14.00 a day. Even as a part-time parent, I'd be looking at paying more a year in I-90 tolls than my car is actually worth.
And yes, I suppose my daughter could take transit, but we're talking two bus transfers, and at least an hour commute. It's hard enough getting a teenager out of bed at 6:30 AM, let alone out the door.
The only other option—spending less time with my daughter—isn't one.
Well, you could get a different job and move so you don't have this wack-ass commute to be with your kid.
All of our lives are made up of choices and circumstances, and things that we're willing to change and things we aren't, and things we believe can't be changed, but no-one gets everything they want. And no-one's circumstances stay the same forever--traffic changes, rents go up, baby mama's move, etc.
And yes, I suppose my daughter could take transit, but we're talking two bus transfers, and at least an hour commute. It's hard enough getting a teenager out of bed at 6:30 AM, let alone out the door.
The only other option—spending less time with my daughter—isn't one.
Well, you could get a different job and move so you don't have this wack-ass commute to be with your kid.
All of our lives are made up of choices and circumstances, and things that we're willing to change and things we aren't, and things we believe can't be changed, but no-one gets everything they want. And no-one's circumstances stay the same forever--traffic changes, rents go up, baby mama's move, etc.
54
For once, Goldy supports a policy I agree with:
- me zipping across SR520 @ 65mph
- Goldy sitting in traffic for 2hrs per day
- me zipping across SR520 @ 65mph
- Goldy sitting in traffic for 2hrs per day
55
@Fnarf, really? Everyone's rich on the island? Then by your logic, your family's rich and mine too. Which would be news to my parents. There are plenty of middle class people on the island. Many of whom move there for the chance to send their kids to (what is considered) a good school district.
57
@45 "Mercer Island is still all-white and all-rich"... Are you serious?
The island is 15% Asian, but clearly you don't see us.
The island is 15% Asian, but clearly you don't see us.
58
I wonder why the mother didn't want to be in a long-term relationship with Goldy. He sounds like such a choice guy.
59
I'm going to second what a lot of people have already said, but hopefully in a much less vile, I-hate-the-author-personally kind of way:
Your kid really should just take the bus to and from school. I did, every morning at 5:45 AM, two transfers, rain or shine, grades 7 through 12 (prior to that my school was less than a mile away, so I walked).
Come to think of it, the idea of parents schlepping their kids to school every day, much less dropping them off AND picking 'em up, is kind of insane. What teenager wants to spend that much time with their parents? It's super awesome if you and your kid have the kind of great relationship where she actually wants to be around you (again, hard for me to imagine of a teenager, but anything's possible), but at some point you have to cut the cord and allow her to get herself around independently.
So, all that driving isn't really necessary. Do it if you want, but know that you don't have to do it. She'd be absolutely fine on the bus.
Your kid really should just take the bus to and from school. I did, every morning at 5:45 AM, two transfers, rain or shine, grades 7 through 12 (prior to that my school was less than a mile away, so I walked).
Come to think of it, the idea of parents schlepping their kids to school every day, much less dropping them off AND picking 'em up, is kind of insane. What teenager wants to spend that much time with their parents? It's super awesome if you and your kid have the kind of great relationship where she actually wants to be around you (again, hard for me to imagine of a teenager, but anything's possible), but at some point you have to cut the cord and allow her to get herself around independently.
So, all that driving isn't really necessary. Do it if you want, but know that you don't have to do it. She'd be absolutely fine on the bus.
60
Is she 16 or over? Get her an electric bike. She'll zip across that bridge and up the hills at each end, and she won't show up at school with B.O.
The day when you expect your parents to be cater to your every need ends on your first day of high school, even if manipulating their divorce-guilt is easy as pie.
The day when you expect your parents to be cater to your every need ends on your first day of high school, even if manipulating their divorce-guilt is easy as pie.
62
I came back to give Goldy a Blue Ribbon for Whiniest Post of the Day.
It's as if Erica "Winethief" Barnett was suddenly back on Slog.
I can't wait to hear you complain about this weekly. And to know it's going to convert you to a "fuck you I got mine, get yours" personality to help you cope with being a cager fully bought into the Automobile lifestyle.
It's as if Erica "Winethief" Barnett was suddenly back on Slog.
I can't wait to hear you complain about this weekly. And to know it's going to convert you to a "fuck you I got mine, get yours" personality to help you cope with being a cager fully bought into the Automobile lifestyle.
63
Goldy - get her a bicycle and send her on her way. Builds character and fitness while reducing your carbon and traffic footprints.
520 tolls are ridiculous - the highway is an integral part of our road network that benefits everyone that travels across and around the lake. It should be funded the same as the rest of our roads.
520 tolls are ridiculous - the highway is an integral part of our road network that benefits everyone that travels across and around the lake. It should be funded the same as the rest of our roads.
65
65 posts in, and I'm the first to come up the the idea of...
...um, maybe buy her a car?
Is Goldy really that awful, reality-denying Dad who's so helplessly self-concerned that he doesn't see the giant category of problems that a teen-aged daughter can avoid if she simply has her own means of transportation, at all times?
If you run the idea by her, I'll bet you a clean $10k that she's willing to take a part-time job to pay for the insurance, and maybe even pay for the car, on installment.
I realize this is totally uncool for the biker-centric, urban-villager SLOG crowd, but dear lord, is that ever an aesthetic demographic without teen-aged daughters.
...um, maybe buy her a car?
Is Goldy really that awful, reality-denying Dad who's so helplessly self-concerned that he doesn't see the giant category of problems that a teen-aged daughter can avoid if she simply has her own means of transportation, at all times?
If you run the idea by her, I'll bet you a clean $10k that she's willing to take a part-time job to pay for the insurance, and maybe even pay for the car, on installment.
I realize this is totally uncool for the biker-centric, urban-villager SLOG crowd, but dear lord, is that ever an aesthetic demographic without teen-aged daughters.
67
Goldy, I'm sorry it's cost you your morning, but this is one 520 commuter who has gained about a half hour of time every single day with his son.
So, while I think that both bridges should be tolled, and the tolls don't affect me financially at all (since I ride transit), the whole thing has had a huge positive impact on my life. I get home at a predictable hour, and my son gets to play more trains with his dada. Or stack more blocks. Whatever the latest thing is. Beats the crap out of sitting in a bus, stuck behind people who thought that the cost of a commute was zero. Sorry some of them went your way, but my understanding is that a lot of them decided to go transit instead. It's a good thing on the north end.
So, while I think that both bridges should be tolled, and the tolls don't affect me financially at all (since I ride transit), the whole thing has had a huge positive impact on my life. I get home at a predictable hour, and my son gets to play more trains with his dada. Or stack more blocks. Whatever the latest thing is. Beats the crap out of sitting in a bus, stuck behind people who thought that the cost of a commute was zero. Sorry some of them went your way, but my understanding is that a lot of them decided to go transit instead. It's a good thing on the north end.
68
i thought the strangler liked tolls on roads ? ride your bike ? fuck that doesn't work does it ? take the bus ? aw shit that sucks don't it ? what can i say but .......... muahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! how does it feel to be the victim of your own bull shit ? one more time muahahahahahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
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