Bay Area Bridge Toll Penalties are Pushing Low Income Residents Into Debt

KQED's Forum

KQED

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.6 • 656 Ratings

🗓️ 16 November 2021

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Bay Area’s harsh system of penalties for late payments on bridge tolls disproportionately hurts low income residents, people of color and non English speakers, according to a new report by the Bay Area public policy group, SPUR. The report found residents struggling to pay tens of thousands of dollars in late fees, as high as 12 times the original toll, leading to deepening debt and a block on vehicle registration. We’ll discuss equity issues in late fee penalties, calls for system reform and the new steps taken by the Bay Area Toll Authority to address the issue. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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1:00.2	From KQED in San Francisco, I'm Alexis Madrigal. Even as COVID killed hundreds of thousands of people, another of humanity's familiar foes,
1:05.1	influenza, was absolutely flatlined by the social distancing measures that have been in effect
1:10.4	around the country.
1:11.6	Confirmed flu cases fell 99%.
1:14.6	We basically did not have flu season.
1:17.6	Now that life is normalizing in the post-vaccination world, what's that mean for the flu?
1:22.6	Will we see a resurgence? We'll talk with an infectious disease doc.
1:25.6	But first, KQED's Dan Brecky tells us about the disastrous situation that some
1:30.9	Bay Area drivers have found themselves in as a result of fines for unpaid bridge tolls.
1:35.7	That's coming up next after this news.
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