Toll strategery

Bay Bridge commuters must now pay congestion pricing tolls, $2 higher (from $6 to $4) during the commute hours of 7am to 10am. This has led to the predictable consequence of late-commute drivers slowing, or even stopping on the highway, to delay their tollbooth arrival till 10am.

Arbitrary "hard" limits often create problems. A better solution? The toll charged to any individual car could be the product of a maximum toll and a probabilistic weighting factor. So our Bay Bridge driver would be charged anywhere between $4 and $6, with a probably (but not certainly) higher toll during the rush hours, and a probably (but not certainly) lower toll the rest of the day, and only a gradual change in the weighting factor throughout the morning. The weighting factor would be varied to generate the same total toll revenue as currently.

Too complicated? Too controversial? If the state can push through a $6 (!!) toll in the first place, they can push this through, and ease the commute headache just a little bit.