Are you riding a motorcycle in the San Francisco area? Good for you, as bikes are surely fun, and for now, there's no toll for crossing the Golden Gate Bridge: the electronic tolling looks like it isn't very good at spotting motorcycles.
According to a story made public by local TV station KPIX 5, the human toll workers on the Golden Gate were laid off several months ago, and replaced by an electronic system. Cutting off payroll costs, the Golden Gate Bridge District said they will save money, but as evidence shows, they're actually losing money by not collecting the $6 (€4.5).
Alan Baker is a motorcyclist in SF and he often cross the Golden Gate Bridge during his two-wheeled outings. However, he has not received any bills in more than two months. The electronic tolling system is supposed to scan a vehicles license plate, ID the owner and automatically send a bill. Not in Alan's case, though.
KPIX 5 loaded Alan and his bike with cameras and had him cross the bridge 4 times in a day, to acquire proof that the system is failing. When asked by KPIX 5, the Golden Gate Bridge District spokeswoman Mary Currie was a bit confused and said it was only a glitch.
However, after publishing the results of the experiment, and later interviewing her, Currie said the IT department actually recorded 4 passes of Alan's bike across the bridge, only making things even funnier and more suspicious.
According to the same source, "Currie said only 1 percent of the nearly 2 million toll transactions per month are seeing anomalies.” The Golden Gate Bridge District is now investigating the accuracy of their plate-reading systems. For the video story, please follow this KPIX 5 link.
Alan Baker is a motorcyclist in SF and he often cross the Golden Gate Bridge during his two-wheeled outings. However, he has not received any bills in more than two months. The electronic tolling system is supposed to scan a vehicles license plate, ID the owner and automatically send a bill. Not in Alan's case, though.
KPIX 5 loaded Alan and his bike with cameras and had him cross the bridge 4 times in a day, to acquire proof that the system is failing. When asked by KPIX 5, the Golden Gate Bridge District spokeswoman Mary Currie was a bit confused and said it was only a glitch.
However, after publishing the results of the experiment, and later interviewing her, Currie said the IT department actually recorded 4 passes of Alan's bike across the bridge, only making things even funnier and more suspicious.
According to the same source, "Currie said only 1 percent of the nearly 2 million toll transactions per month are seeing anomalies.” The Golden Gate Bridge District is now investigating the accuracy of their plate-reading systems. For the video story, please follow this KPIX 5 link.
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