SF Toll Takers get Body Armor

[Mongo the Mutterer]

Golden Gate Bridge toll collectors get body armor

Toll collectors at San Francisco's landmark Golden Gate Bridge have been issued body armor to guard against armed bandits.

"We did a review of safety procedures and added this tool to the toll box for collectors," bridge authority spokeswoman Mary Currie said Tuesday. "This is really the right thing to do."

Wait a minute. There aren't supposed to be any GUNS in Frisco... What is the body armor for? Spitwads?

 

[jobu07]

I'm genuinely curious about this. Why would they need vests? They can't have any truely sizable sum of money in the toll boths. Maybe a few dollars in change. And with more and more municipalities going to electronic toll collection, it seems like the individual toll collectors would be a pretty low end target indeed. Seems like a waste of taxpayer money, not that their saftey isn't important.

 

[GarrettJ]

I suspect that you could knock off a few hundred dollars from a toll booth. However, a good chunk of that would be in change, which gets very heavy. Not condusive to a fast getaway if you have to run for it.

 

[KriegHund]

Wait, why dont we just...oh yeah, never mind...

What makes em think they wont make the toll taker guy get down on his or her knees and shoot em in the head?

A tank without a gun is just as useless as no tank at all..

 

[ArmedBear]

I'm genuinely curious about this. Why would they need vests? They can't have any truely sizable sum of money in the toll boths. Maybe a few dollars in change.

You aren't an idiot. Because you aren't, and you probably have some sense of right and wrong because you weren't raised to think you were always a victim, you aren't a robber.

Robbers have no such advantages.

But they should arm the people if their job is so dangerous!

 

[50 Freak]

I suspect that you could knock off a few hundred dollars from a toll booth. However, a good chunk of that would be in change, which gets very heavy. Not condusive to a fast getaway if you have to run for it.

Of the four bridges around the Bay Area, 3 of them charge $3 bucks for toll, and the 4th (Golden Gate Bridge) charges $5 buck for toll.

Tens of thousands of cars use the bridges every day. Still think it's only a few bucks?

 

[twency]

Tens of thousands of cars use the bridges every day. Still think it's only a few bucks?

Hmm, so during rush hour lets figure they can get a car through in say, an average of ten seconds. (If most people have their cash ready to go, I bet that's a conservative figure.) That's 6 cars/minute, 360/hour. At $3 each, that could be over a thousand bucks an hour in the cash-only lanes. All in worn, unrecorded, non-sequentially numbered small bills. Not bad.

Of course, that's a lot of little pieces of paper to haul around, but people knock over convenience stores for small change all the time. I assume that the toll-takers have some kind of cash drop system like some convenience stores do, so they aren't constantly sitting on a pile of cash. Maybe a pneumatic tube system?

I love the final sentence in the article.

"The spokeswoman said the Golden Gate Bridge is typically a friendly environment for toll takers, with some motorists giving them gifts of chocolates or flowers during the winter holiday season."

Chocolates, flowers, small pieces of lead. What a great job!

______________
-twency

 

[Nightfall]

But with the handgun ban going into effect next year, I would think they'd stop worrying.

 

[mohican]

Hmm, so during rush hour lets figure they can get a car through in say, an average of ten seconds. (If most people have their cash ready to go, I bet that's a conservative figure.) That's 6 cars/minute, 360/hour. At $3 each, that could be over a thousand bucks an hour in the cash-only lanes. All in worn, unrecorded, non-sequentially numbered small bills. Not bad.

Of course, that's a lot of little pieces of paper to haul around, but people knock over convenience stores for small change all the time. I assume that the toll-takers have some kind of cash drop system like some convenience stores do, so they aren't constantly sitting on a pile of cash. Maybe a pneumatic tube system?

I love the final sentence in the article.



Chocolates, flowers, small pieces of lead. What a great job!

______________
-twency

small pieces of lead?
a brick of 22s and a beagle pup?

 

[Standing Wolf]

I find myself missing the temperate climate and beaches less and less.

 

[dman4384]

They are just preparing for the crime explosion once the ban goes into affect.

They saw what happened in Washington DC and Chicago.

 

[50 Freak]

But with the handgun ban going into effect next year, I would think they'd stop worrying.

YOUR RIGHT!!!!! next year, with all the handguns banned in SF, there will be no crime at all. I think I'll propose a bill that will make SF a gun free city. NO GUNS AT ALL!!! This means the police, politicians and their body guards. Everybody will be disarmed.

We'll see just how quick SF turns into a hell hole worse than it is.

Me, I'll keep my CCW when I travel into SF. And since I don't live in the city limits, I don't have to abide by their stupid laws.

 

[Silver Bullet]

First thing I thought of was the authorities expect a terrorist attack on the bridge.

Maybe it’s too small a symbol. More likely an attack would involve explosives (or planes) and not guns, I suppose.

 

[spartacus2002]

I"m betting it's someone's way of getting their hands on DoHS $$, which is flowing like a mighty river.

All it will do is contribute to the Us v. Them mindset.

If you dress your employees like soldiers of an occupying force, pretty soon they start acting like an occupying force.

 

[bogie]

They have the budget; they use the budget. Simple.

 

[foghornl]

Hey, I just got a wild idea (or as Mrs. Foggy frequently tells me, "...A Wild Hair in Your ***)

No Body Armor since the SF gun ban will keep them safe from crooks, but let's put Sen. Di-Fi in one of the booths.....and no, she can't carry her CCW piece, either.

 

[slopemeno]

A toll taker was shot a few months back in a robbery. If you think about it, $5.oo per car, a busy commute morning, a few hours between breaks, it adds up. Actually the Richmond/San Rafael Bridge has had more than its share of robberies as well.

And no, the toll takers on the GG Bridge are actually some really nice folks, not an occupying force. I cross the bridge two days a week and they are decent folks. Post 9/11 I've flown my R/C sailplane right next to the south end of the bridge and nobody said a peep.

 

[MICHAEL T]

Rob a toll person then drive on bridge as excape route Makes sense to me.In windy city the toll people steal about as much as they turn in. But thats Il. and everybody in that part of state are crooks.

 

[benEzra]

A toll taker was shot a few months back in a robbery. If you think about it, $5.oo per car, a busy commute morning, a few hours between breaks, it adds up. Actually the Richmond/San Rafael Bridge has had more than its share of robberies as well.

Do you have links to any details? A Bay Area resident on another forum was questioning this and didn't think there had ever been any sort of robberies/threats thereof against toll workers.

 

[sm]

<scratches head>
Ban handguns in SF - now toll booth folks have vests? I may have been Publik Skooled in the South - don't mean I can't see something wrong with this .

1) Maybe the vests are supposed to keep the Swans of Capistrano from pooping on the toll booth workers when outside the booth and messing up their clothes.
Not familar with the geography - too lazy to look it up...

2) Maybe if citizens gets used to Employees/ Members of the State wearing vests, in any capacity - Nobody will know when CA becomes an Official Police State.

I mean only the Elite need vests and guns - right?
Indoctrinate slowly and methodically, masses won't know.

Masses are too busy and worried about whom is getting divorced in Hollywood, and what Dr.Phil's take is on how to deal with Aunt Edna only liking Chicken breasts at the fast food place...OMG! Aunt Edna...we never knew!