I don’t disagree with you, Erik, that exemptions should be few and far between.

But everyone instinctively understands that all first responders get to do things we don’t get to do. They can speed, they can run red lights, and we pull over to the side of the road when they pass.

If they could cross freely, I don’t think you’d get a lot of people complaining that “if fire trucks get to cross the bridge for free, then so should I.”

This is a great example of Pacific Northwest virginal experience with tolls. Let’s not forget that tolls are and have been keeping interstates alive all over the east coast and midwest since the birth of the highway itself. And in Boston, New York, Jersey, Chicago, Niagara Falls, or New Haven you will not see an emergency vehicle with flashing lights slow-poking itself through a toll line just so the EMT can toss his dollar at the machine (New York is one of the last places that employs real live human toll takers!).

What exactly does “exempt” mean? If it means that emergency vehicles (and other public vehicles) don’t have to wait in line with their dollar and change in hand, then yes, they should and will most likely be “exempt” (aka: transponder present in vehicle). If “exempt” means that the public vehicles don’t have to pay toll fares, then this discussion is a little silly. Tolls cost. Period. Any and every public (or private) agency that owns and maintains its own fleet of vehicles normally pays those costs out of what’s known as a Fleet Operations Budget. At least that’s how things run on the other side of the mountains. Fleet operations budgets for public agencies such as Police/Fire/State Patrol are of course, state mandated and paid through (gasp) taxes! But why shouldn’t they be? After all, the increased costs are justified by the improved delivery of service and response.

exempt pierce and sound transit, the agencies that encourage taking cars of the road

This would make perfect sense if the tolls were intended as a market adjustment to reduce demand on the bridge. Unfortunately, tolls can never be used this way. By state law, tolls are only allowed to recover costs associated with construction. Once the bridge is paid off, the tolls go away.

In reference to comment 2 by Eric Hansberg: I attended traffic school in Maryland because my insurer offered a discount for doing that when I lived there. The law may be different here in Washington, but there, the instructors there made a point of telling the class that emergency responders CANNOT legally run red lights and stop signs, despite the fact that the do it all the time. Only a uniformed police officer can override a traffic control device, and only if he physically takes control of the intersection first (e.g., he has to park his squad car in the intersection and flash his lights, he cannot just blow through the light). If such a vehicle hits you while doing so, they are liable.

Most importantly, if a fire truck driver, ambulance driver or policeman waves you through a light because you are in his way in front of him, and YOU then hit a pedestrian or another vehicle, YOU are liable — the officer of first responder does not have the authority to wave you through a red light when he is behind you and cannot see what you can see.

Disclaimer — again, there may be significant differences between Maryland and Washington laws on these points.

Emergency vehicles – this really only substantially applies to police cars – should not receive a free pass when moving outside their jurisdiction. (e.g. a Fife Police Department vehicle crossing the Narrows is unlikely on police business)

For those who may have missed it, there was a decent editorial in the TNT on this yesterday: A burden for the county, a freebie for the state:

“There’s no particular reason Pierce County’s cities should enjoy an exemption; none of those cities straddles the Narrows. The Lakewood Police Department doesn’t patrol the Peninsula, and the Gig Harbor Police Department doesn’t patrol Tacoma.”