Golden Gate Bridge Losing Human Toll-Takers

Cash will no longer be accepted at end of March
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 22, 2013 1:30 PM CST
Golden Gate Bridge Losing Human Toll-Takers
A wave breaks under the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.   (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

The Golden Gate Bridge is going to feel a little less human starting late next month. The bridge is shifting to an all-electronic toll system, which means the elimination of 32 toll-taker positions, reports the San Jose Mercury News. Drivers who currently pay cash are being encouraged to join the electronic Fastrak system. Those who don't join (tourists, for example) can still get across—cameras will record license plates so a bill can be mailed.

Fine, writes Andrew Leonard at Salon, himself a longtime Fastrak user. The march of progress and all that. "But it still seems to me that there is a meaningful difference between presenting people with the voluntary option of adopting a technology that makes tracking their movements easier, and requiring that everyone get an RFID chip embedded in their frontal cortex, er, I mean, on their car’s dashboard." Consider it another reminder of how much we're being tracked in the modern world. Click for his full post. (More Golden Gate Bridge stories.)

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