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

  • Smart cities - better world, says A-to-Be
    May 19, 2020
    Smart city adoption in the US has been sluggish, thinks Jason Wall of A-to-Be USA. But there is still time to learn lessons from the European experience...
  • Does enforcement merit a place in the EU's ITS action Plan?
    February 3, 2012
    Colin Wilson, IBI Group, looks at the implications for enforcement of the European Commission's new Action Plan for the Deployment of ITS in Europe
  • Free-flow tolling needs classification technology rethink
    February 2, 2012
    The move to all-electronic fee collection should be encouraging tolling authorities to look again at whether their vehicle classification criteria and technologies remain at all appropriate. Bob Lees of Idris Technology writes
  • First US toll interoperability contract for Egis
    October 7, 2013
    French company Egis has signed a contract with the US Alliance for Toll Interoperability (ATI) for the supply, implementation and operation of the nationwide interoperability hub for billing the tolls of inter-state motorists, based on licence plate camera reads and transponders. Founded in 2009 to promote and implement interstate interoperability, the ATI has grown to include forty full members consisting of toll road operators from within the US and three affiliate members from Canada, Australia and N