The FasTrak advantage at Bay Area toll plazas is about to get a whole lot bigger — and so is the disadvantage of paying bridge tolls with cash. Starting in July, more cash lanes at the Bay Area’s state-owned toll bridges will be permanently converted to FasTrak-only lanes.
By Ivy Morrison
Published: July, 2007
The addition of more FasTrak-only lanes will help ease congestion, since these lanes can handle about three times as many vehicles per hour as cash lanes. But the lane conversions may create additional delays for cash tollpayers — especially during peak travel periods.
Cash payers will have fewer lanes available. So we’re encouraging everyone to sign up for FasTrak now to avoid possible delays in the cash lanes, said Marin County Supervisor and Metropolitan Transportation Commission member Steve Kinsey.We are focused on making the FasTrak program easy and accessible to customers.
FasTrak to the left, cash to the right
New FasTrak-only lanes and other toll plaza improvements will be implemented on the Antioch, Benicia-Martinez, Carquinez, Dumbarton, Richmond-San Rafael, San Francisco-Oakland Bay and San Mateo-Hayward bridges. The toll plaza configuration at the Golden Gate Bridge will not be changed. Dedicated carpool lanes at the Carquinez Bridge and San Mateo-Hayward Bridge toll plazas will convert to FasTrak-only lanes during non-peak hours.
Two more FasTrak-only lanes will be added at the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge toll plaza, reserving nine of the 20 total lanes for exclusive use by FasTrak customers. The FasTrak-only lanes will be strategically placed to allow easy access for FasTrak-equipped vehicles approaching the bridge from Interstate 80, Interstate 580 or Interstate 880. At all other state-owned toll bridges, drivers need only stay to the left to reach the FasTrak-only lanes. If you are paying cash, move to the right lanes at the toll plazas. New signage and pavement markings will direct drivers to the correct lanes at each toll plaza.
We’re greatly extending the length of the FasTrak-only lanes to separate FasTrak customers and cash payers, and to eliminate the weaving between lanes that often adds to the backups at the toll plazas, explained Kinsey. Drivers should use extra caution in the first weeks after the lane conversions, as everybody gets used to the new lane configurations.
For a tentative schedule of the toll plaza lane conversions and lane diagrams at each toll plaza, visit www.511.org.
