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

  • Measuring vehicle lengths with a single loop - promising results
    July 27, 2012
    District 7 of Caltrans has been conducting trials to see whether the use of a single inductive loop to measure vehicle lengths and so identify heavy trucks is feasible. So far, the results have been very promising, according to Lead Transportation Engineer Steve Malkson. Between them, the adjoining ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the US's two biggest, cover some 10,700 acres (43km2) and 68 miles (109km) of waterfront.
  • Priority for safety and interoperability, need for DSRC
    July 18, 2012
    Justin McNew, Chief Technology Officer, Kapsch TrafficCom Inc., USA offers his opinion of where 5.9GHz DSRC technology will head in the coming years. The debate ranges back and forth over the most suitable technological solution for future tolling and charging in the US. However, the coming trend is common cooperative infrastructure: instrumented roads and vehicles with the capacity to communicate with each other over all manner of safety, mobility and traveller applications, many of which will involve fina
  • Island Radar: safely crossing continents
    August 6, 2020
    There is a safety flashpoint wherever roads cross over railways. Island Radar is using well-established traffic technology to keep all parties safe from harm.
  • Truck platooning trials take to the highways
    July 24, 2017
    There is rising enthusiasm in America and beyond for the concept of truck platooning with trials being planned in several US states, as David Crawford reports. Growing numbers of US states are considering or implementing plans for trials of electronically-linked truck platooning on public road networks. This is in response to the interest being shown by the US$70bn a year road freight industry, where fuel represents 41% of the operating costs making the prospect of improving fuel economy by trucks travellin