Wayne

There are several bridges that lead from St. Petersburg to the beach areas on the Gulf. The primary route for many visitors is to drive west along St. Petersburg's Central Avenue, across the toll bridge and onto the beach at Treasure Island.

The city of Treasure Island owns the land and the toll booth. They derive significant income from the tolls that people pay to come to their beach area. Through the end of this year, tolls will cost 50 cents as they have for the past few years. But be warned--as of the first of January, the toll across to Treasure Island is increasing to ONE DOLLAR, EACH WAY!!! That means if you use this commonly used route to go to the beach area, you'll pay two bucks just to get there and back. To me, it's unconscionable that one little beach area community can impose such a burden on so many visitors.

What many visitors don't know is that there are several bridges to the beach that don't require payment of a toll. The most-used routes are the road into St. Pete Beach and the road into Madeira Beach. Neither of these require a toll to be paid, and once on the beach strip you can drive to Treasure Island or wherever you are going without any tolls. It's probably worth driving a few miles to save two bucks.

If it were possible, I'd ask every visitor to the St. Petersburg area to boycott the Treasure Island toll road and use another. And if you are arriving in St. Petersburg area by interstate, it would even pay to take the "Pinellas Bayway Exit" to St. Pete Beach, then go on to Treasure Island if that is your destination. Even the Bayway toll is only 50 cents. How the dastardly management of the town of Treasure Island hopes to make money off their one dollar toll is questionable; I hope they go broke.

Anyway, it's just a warning from a person who lives in St. Pete Beach and hates to see our visitors to the beach areas getting screwed by the greedy management of one little town.

Patrick

I'm certainly no authority on this matter, but I'm curious, Wayne. Where does the money from the bridge toll go? Is it for maintenance and/or eventual replacement of that bridge? Is that bridge fully maintained separately by the Department of Highways? Or is it a little bonus that is divided by the town council members and pocketed or something like that? I'm just wondering if the operation and the building and maintenance of that bridge is somehow different from the other bridges.

McSmith

I find this very interesting. My family and I will be spending the month of Feb at a home rental just off the treasure island causeway. The home is on 1st ave south off 79th street. Where is the toll plaza? Will I have to pay $1 to travel from this house to get onto Central Ave.?

I too find toll roads and bridges to be absurd. I grew up in Queens in NYC in a section that was on a small penninsula. In order to access the rest of my borough and the rest of my city I had to drive over a bridge. The toll on the bridge is now $4 each way. At that time it was $1, then $1.50 and then up to $2.50. Of course there are discounts for residents, I think currently residents pay about $2.50 each way. Now I live in NJ and must use the toll roads of the NJ turnpike and the Garden State Parkway on a daily basis. There are many organizations in this area that are working to end the tolls.

Do the town of Treasure Island and the city of St. Petersburg offer a discount program for residents?

joan

And now for the REST of the story, as they say...

Although Wayne blames all this on greed, he couldn't be farther from the truth. As a resident of Treasure Island, I happen to know that our city is entirely responsible for the upkeep of the bridge. And this bridge desperately needs replacing (if you've ever been underneath it you'd agree - scary!). Anyway, unlike the other STATE funded bridges, our TI causeway is financed by the city exclusively. Until two days ago, that is: Congressman Bill Young has introduced an "Omnibus package", which will bring $50 million to this project - on the condition that the toll booth GO AWAY! And it will supposedly pass on Dec 8th! They are even suspending the sale of annual bridge passes, scheduled to go on sale Dec 1st (at an increase of $50 over last year's $30 fee) in anticipation of this bill passing.

So Wayne, your complaint is moot: our trusty congressperson has finally brought the TI bridge into the STATE fold. Now everyone shares in the cost - not just those who use it. That is what you were hoping for, right????

(Patrick, get out your checkbook - you too will be paying for this!)

And to say it's all about "making money" is irresponsible - an uninformed knee-jerk reaction. I don't like paying almost triple either...but a little investigation goes a long way towards understanding the real facts.

Patrick

Thanks for clearing it up, Joan. I suspected something like that. To rant about a toll just being put on because the locals are greedy, really doesn't make much sense. Some people think things are free -- but somewhere, somehow, sombebody has to pay for everything!

suzanne

Tolls make a lot of sense. In most cases they are used to pay for the construction and/or maintenance of a facility. The people who use the facility are the people who are paying. Now, isn't that more fair than taxing everyone in the state? What if they don't even own a car? I would be REALLY pissed off if I lived in NJ and they got rid of the tolls. Why? Because all the money that the tolls agencies once collected from out-of-state vehicles would now be taken from MY pocket. And the toll highways would be even more ridiculously crowded than they are now. No, thanks.

In NYC the MTA bridge & tunnel tolls are also used to subsidize the subway system. Otherwise you'd be paying closer to $4 for a subway ride. Now wouldn't THAT be ridiculous? Much better for 7 million people to use a less-polluting form of transportation in such a big city...hence they made it the "cheap" way to travel, and the polluters clogging up the streets are the ones who pay more.

McSmith - I assume you grew up in the Rockaways, because of your description, and the bridges there are the only ones with a resident discount. The undiscounted toll is $2, not $4, unless your vehicle is over 7000 lbs.