Peak-hour tolls have little effect on Bay Bridge congestion

The number of rush-hour commuters has grown to 9,000 cars per hour, near the Bay Bridge's limit, despite a peak-hour toll. The number of rush-hour commuters has grown to 9,000 cars per hour, near the Bay Bridge's limit, despite a peak-hour toll. Photo: Justin Sullivan, Getty Images Photo: Justin Sullivan, Getty Images Image 1 of / 9 Caption Close Peak-hour tolls have little effect on Bay Bridge congestion 1 / 9 Back to Gallery

Four years after its implementation, the $6 toll to curb rush-hour traffic on the Bay Bridge appears to be having little, if any, effect on easing the peak-hour backup on the morning commute.

In fact, if a recent weeklong snapshot of the morning rush hour taken by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission is any indication, the number of peak-hour commuters has grown to 9,000 cars per hour, which is just about the limit of what the bridge can handle.

Between April 28 and May 2, 117,059 cars and trucks passed through the Bay Bridge toll gates during the morning peak hours - an 8,949 increase over the average weekly commute before "congestive pricing" was implemented in 2010.

Under the new pricing strategy, commuters are charged $2 more between the hours of 5 a.m. and 10 a.m.

The off-hour price has stayed at $4 - a $2 savings.

The idea was to encourage drivers to cross at nonpeak hours.

The snapshot, however, shows that the increased traffic, brought on by the better economy, has remained at its old pattern - hitting 8,500 cars per hour by 6 a.m. and peaking between 6 and 8 a.m. at about 9,000 cars per hour.

Just as it did before congestive pricing.

Whatever the case, the rush-hour backups aren't likely to go away anytime soon.

Nor is the congestive pricing - which was intended to provide relief.

"We still want to incentivize people to use the bridge on the off peak," said MTC spokesman Randy Rentschler.

Only, in this case, the real incentive might be to just beat the inevitable backup.

Slumming it: Turns out that one of the welfare hotels that City Attorney Dennis Herrera cited recently in a lawsuit for allegedly having deplorable conditions is actually owned by the powerful plumbers union pension fund.

The Local 38 Pipe Trades Pension Trust Fund, which for years has owned the red-brick Civic Center Hotel South of Market, isn't named as a defendant in Herrera's big fraud suit.

The plumbers union has long been a force in San Francisco politics. Former union head Larry Mazzola Sr. is president of the San Francisco Airport Commission. His son, Larry Mazzola Jr., who doubles as business manager for Local 38 and chairman of the union's separately run pension fund, is also vice president of the Treasure Island Development Authority board.

The Civic Center hotel is one of 15 fleabag hotels in the Tenderloin, Mission, South of Market and Mid-Market that are owned or managed by the Thakor family, the target of the suit.

The hotel is at 20 12th St., just around the corner from the union headquarters on Market Street.

Mazzola Jr., reached last week, said he has been out of town and was unaware of the suit.

"Truthfully, I don't know what you are talking about," he said.

Mazzola referred us to Peter Machi, the trust administrator who works out of the same Market Street union office.

Machi did not return our call for comment.

As for why Herrera decided not to go after the Pension Trust Fund or any other building owners that have deals with the Thakors?

According to Gabriel Zitrin, deputy communications director for the city attorney, that possibility hasn't been ruled out. But he said the case started after city building inspectors found "pervasive code violations" at two Thakor-run hotels in the Tenderloin.

So "it made sense to focus the investigation on the Thakors' common business practices in all of their buildings," he said.

Say, what? Voters around the state getting their absentee ballots in the mail may be surprised to see the name of suspended state Sen. Leland Yee - who has been charged in a federal corruption scandal - still listed as a candidate for secretary of state.

Yee withdrew from the contest last month after the feds charged him and 28 others in a federal racketeering case, but it was after the March 7 filing deadline - and too late to be removed from the ballot.

"Once a declaration of candidacy is filed, no one can withdraw," says Secretary of State spokesman Evan Goldberg.

And, believe it or not, if Yee finishes among the top two candidates in June's primary, his name will appear on the November ballot as well.

In the meantime, Yee is still waiting to get back most of the $518,000 that his campaign had plunked down for billboard ads ahead of the June primary.

From what we're told, any unspent money will be returned to the campaign just as soon as all the lawyers sort it out.

And what happens to that money if it comes back? The law allows Yee to use it to pay for his criminal defense.

Not to worry, however - none of that money was courtesy of the feds.

We're told that all the checks that undercover agents made to Yee's secretary of state's race this year bounced.