Skip to main content

Golden Gate Bridge to debut all-electronic tolling

After two years of planning, all-electronic tolling will begin on San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge on 27 March. In 2011, when the bridge district was facing a five-year shortfall of US$89 million, the Highway and Transportation District approved a plan to pursue all-electronic tolling as a cost-saving measure. The district will trim its expenses by US$16 million over the next decade as a result of the new system. According to bridge district spokeswoman Mary Currie, the bridge will be the first in Califo
March 11, 2013 Read time: 2 mins
Picture: Della Huff
After two years of planning, all-electronic tolling will begin on San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge on 27 March.

In 2011, when the bridge district was facing a five-year shortfall of US$89 million, the Highway and Transportation District approved a plan to pursue all-electronic tolling as a cost-saving measure. The district will trim its expenses by US$16 million over the next decade as a result of the new system.  According to bridge district spokeswoman Mary Currie, the bridge will be the first in California and the third in the country to feature a cashless toll plaza.

Motorists passing through the new system on the Golden Gate Bridge will have several payment options, including using their FasTrak transponders, which is already the most popular method for those going through the toll plaza.

Vehicles without FasTrak devices will have their licence plates photographed by security cameras. A bill would subsequently be sent to the address registered to the plate. Motorists will have three weeks to pay; late or missed payments will result in a fine. The district is in the process of setting up kiosks around the Bay Area where motorists can make one-time payments to travel across the bridge.

The district is to hold a public hearing on new speed limits at the toll plaza. Currently, there is an 8 km/h limit at the plaza, but bridges around the Bay Area have limits of 40 km/h in their FasTrak-only lanes.

With the debut of the new system, all payment forms will be accepted in every lane; the 1855 California Highway Patrol will enforce compliance.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Managed motorways, hard shoulder running aids safety, saves time
    January 30, 2012
    The announcement that, in 2012/13, work to extend Managed Motorways to Junctions 5-8 of the M6 near Birmingham in the West Midlands is scheduled to start marks the next step for the UK's hard shoulder running concept, first introduced on the M42 in 2006. The M6 scheme is in fact one of several announced; over the next few years work will start on applying Managed Motorways to various sections of the M1, M25 London Orbital, M60 and M62. According to Paul Unwin, senior project manager with the Highways Agency
  • Chris Tomlinson: 'My golden rule is have an open mind’
    July 27, 2021
    The executive director of Georgia’s mobility authorities explains tolling’s place in demand management, the benefits of being mode-agnostic and how to learn from other agencies
  • Monitoring and transparency preserve enforcement's reputation
    July 30, 2012
    What can be done to preserve automated enforcement's reputation in the face of media and public criticism? Here, system manufacturers and suppliers talk about what they think are the most appropriate business models. Recent events in Italy only served to once again to push automated enforcement into the media spotlight. At the heart of the matter were the numerous alleged instances of local authorities and their contract suppliers of enforcement services colluding to illegally shorten amber signal phase tim
  • Automating enforcement of environmental zones
    July 27, 2012
    Amsterdam City Council has chosen to move away from manual enforcement of its environmental zone, which is intended to keep highly polluting goods vehicles out of the city centre, and is installing an automated, ANPR-based system. The signs are not much to look at: white with a red circle and the all-important word Milieuzone ('Environmental zone'). But these signs mean that Amsterdam's city centre is strictly off-limits to polluting goods traffic. At the moment compliance is monitored by special wardens wh