Press Releases

For Immediate Release

Committee OKs Plan to
Put More Drivers on the FasTrak®

Strategy Includes Financial Incentives, More Lane Conversions,
Improved Signage and Striping, Expanded Marketing

Contact:
Rod McMillan, MTC/BATA 510.817.5860
John Goodwin, MTC/BATA 510.817.5862

OAKLAND, Calif., June 14, 2006 – A comprehensive two-year plan to expand and improve the FasTrak electronic toll collection program was approved today by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC)’s Bay Area Toll Authority Oversight Committee. Key elements of the FasTrak Strategic Plan include converting more lanes at bridge toll plazas to FasTrak-only lanes; improving marketing and distribution of FasTrak toll tags; and testing new technologies to improve operating efficiencies. The plan will now be considered by the full Bay Area Toll Authority (BATA) at its regularly scheduled meeting on June 28.

The goal of the FasTrak Strategic Plan is to make the toll plazas at the Bay Area’s seven state-owned bridges function more efficiently by boosting the percentage of motorists who use FasTrak to pay their tolls to 70 percent during peak commute periods and 50 percent on weekends. 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. While FasTrak-equipped vehicles already account for about 70 percent of morning commute traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge, the current figure for state-owned bridges during peak periods is just 42 percent.

To make FasTrak more accessible, the initial prepaid toll balance for customers who open their accounts with a credit card will be reduced to $25 from the current $40. Customers who use a credit card to open their accounts and request three or fewer transponders are not required to pay a transponder deposit. For customers who do not use a credit card, the required refundable deposit for a transponder will be reduced to $20 from the current $30. These changes will go into effect in September 2006 .

To get FasTrak transponders into more drivers’ vehicles right away, MTC in late August or early September will begin distributing transponders at select retail locations. The combination of lower costs and retail distribution will simplify the process for obtaining a toll tag.

To accommodate 70 percent FasTrak usage, MTC and Caltrans in April 2007 will convert more lanes to FasTrak-only at the Carquinez, Dumbarton, Richmond-San Rafael and 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.

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. A complete list of the planned lane conversions — and diagrams of the planned lane configurations at each toll plaza — is available here (PDF 14 MB).

According to Rod McMillan, director of Bridge Oversight and Operations for MTC, “Directing traffic to the correct lanes well before the toll plaza is critical. We want to prevent traffic in the slower-moving cash lanes from interfering with FasTrak customers. So we’ll be installing signs directly over the lanes, and extending the pavement striping for FasTrak-only lanes as far upstream as we can to provide the maximum possible advantage for vehicles with FasTrak.”

Planned signage improvements include the use of changeable message signs at the toll plazas and along the approaches. This will allow the flexibility to increase or decrease the number of FasTrak-only lanes as needed.

FasTrak can be used in every lane at every toll plaza at every Bay Area toll bridge. There currently are more than 500,000 FasTrak accounts now open throughout the Bay Area. Traffic analysis done by MTC and Caltrans indicates that if more toll lanes are converted to FasTrak-only and FasTrak enrollment does not increase, cash tollpayers could face significant additional delay at toll plazas.

“The projected delays in the cash lanes can be avoided if enough people switch to FasTrak,” explained McMillan. “So we’re urging all motorists to sign up for FasTrak. It’s easy and quick, there’s no charge for the toll tag, and there are no monthly maintenance fees.”

The full FasTrak Strategic Plan can be viewed here (Word 11.6 MB).

Customers can enroll in the FasTrak program online at 511.org or bayareafastrak.org, via phone by calling 511 and asking for ‘FasTrak’ at the first prompt, or in person at the FasTrak customer service center at 475 The Embarcadero in San Francisco.

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.

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