The Bay Area Toll Authority (BATA) is making it easier than ever for motorists to take advantage of the region’s FasTrak electronic toll collection program. Beginning Oct. 1, the opening prepaid toll balance required for new customers will drop to $25 from the current $40.
More FasTrak-only lanes are coming to Bay Area toll plazas in 2007. Photo by Peter Beeler
By John Goodwin
Published: October, 2006
We’re responding directly to demand from motorists who don’t use the toll bridges as part of their everyday commute, said Rod McMillan, director of Bridge Oversight and Operations for BATA. We’ve heard from drivers all over Northern California, and they’ve consistently told us they’re interested in FasTrak but they’re reluctant to invest more than about $25 upfront for a service they’re likely to use only on weekends.
In addition to reducing the opening prepaid toll balance, BATA, on Oct. 1, will cut to $20 from the current $30 the refundable toll tag deposit required for FasTrak customers who open their accounts with cash or a check instead of a credit card. For existing customers who already have paid a $30 deposit, BATA will automatically transfer the $10 difference to their prepaid toll balances. No deposit is required for customers who link their accounts to a credit card and request no more than three toll tags.
The new cost structure is part of the FasTrak Strategic Plan that BATA adopted in June 2006 to expand and improve electronic toll collection in the Bay Area. The plan’s goals are to make the toll plazas at the region’s seven state-owned toll bridges function more efficiently by boosting the percentage of motorists who use FasTrak, and to make it easier for motorists to sign up and use the FasTrak system.
A FasTrak-only lane can handle about three times as many vehicles per hour as lanes where drivers stop to pay cash. This allows many more vehicles to pass through the toll plazas — creating a faster trip on most bridges. Presently, there are more than 530,000 FasTrak account holders in the Bay Area. During peak periods, FasTrak-equipped vehicles account for about 70 percent of morning commute traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge and 42 percent on the state-owned bridges.
In the summer of 2007, BATA will convert more lanes to FasTrak-only at the Carquinez, Dumbarton, Richmond-San Rafael, San Mateo-Hayward and San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge toll plazas. The FasTrak Strategic Plan also calls for open-road tolling (allowing motorists to pass through the toll facility at highway speeds using their FasTrak toll tags) at the new Benicia-Martinez Bridge toll plaza when the new span opens in late 2007.
FasTrak can be used in all lanes at all Bay Area toll plazas. The conversion of more cash lanes to FasTrak-only will be accompanied by lane striping and signage improvements to separate FasTrak traffic and cash tollpayers as far in advance of the toll plazas as possible.
In addition, the Strategic Plan calls for FasTrak-only lanes to be grouped together at the left side of the toll plazas to the extent feasible, with cash lanes to the right side of the toll plazas and plaza approaches. The complete FasTrak Strategic Plan is available on the BATA Web site at bata.mtc.ca.gov.
The Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) is the transportation planning, financing and coordinating agency for the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area. BATA, which is directed by the same policy board as MTC, administers toll revenues from the Bay Area’s seven state-owned toll bridges. Toll revenues from the Golden Gate Bridge are administered by the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District, which joined with BATA to operate a single regional FasTrak customer service center in San Francisco.
