Transit czars look to hike bridge tolls
By: Mike Aldax
Examiner Staff Writer
June 10, 2009
 |
| More expensive crossing: Currently, it’s free to use the Bay Bridge if you’re carpooling. The regional transit commission, however, wants to impose a $2 or $3 toll. (AP file photo) |
After the Bay Area rings in the new year, toll booths on the region’s bridges will rake in more money.
Tolls will likely increase in January from $4 to $5 on regional state-owned bridges such as the Bay Bridge. Also, carpool lanes, which are now free, may cost commuters as much as $3 per crossing, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Commission.
The toll increase is needed to offset an ongoing downturn in bridge crossings in the past five years, to fund seismic retrofits on two bridges and to compensate for an ailing credit market, said John Goodwin, spokesman for the transit commission.
The seven state-owned bridges that would see fare hikes include the Bay Bridge and the Antioch, Benicia-Martinez, Carquinez, Dumbarton, Richmond-San Rafael and San Mateo-Hayward crossings.
The Golden Gate Bridge toll would remain the same. Drivers already pay $6 for cash tolls and $5 if they use FasTrak.
In December, transit commission Executive Director Steve Heminger suggested raising the toll for carpools to $2 or $3. Carpools are defined on most bridges as vehicles carrying a minimum of three people and are currently free during peak commute hours.
“Our expectation is that [the carpool charge] would be a discounted toll,” Goodwin said. “We would not completely eliminate the financial incentive to carpool.”
There is also discussion about raising fees by more than $1 for multi-axle vehicles, Goodwin said.
The proposed hikes were largely pitched in light of the recession. Fewer vehicles are crossing bridges as the result of higher unemployment, officials said. Also, the soaring cost of driving, including higher gas prices and car-maintenance costs, is luring more commuters to public transit.
Upward of 125 million vehicles cross the seven state-owned Bay Area bridges annually, but that number has been dropping by about 2 percent each year for the past five years, Goodwin said.
The proposed toll increases would also help raise $950 million to protect the two newest bridges — the Dumbarton and Antioch spans — from major earthquakes, he said.
The $1 increase would be the fourth time in just more than a decade that bridge tolls were raised. The price went up to $1 to $2 for the Bay Bridge seismic retrofit in 1998.
After reaching $3 in 2004, drivers were hit with another $1 increase last year to make up for billions of dollars in cost overruns on the new eastern span.
The Metropolitan Transportation Commission would need to approve the measure this fall, and the tolls would increase in January at the earliest, Goodwin said.
Marching upward
Drivers have seen the Bay Bridge toll increase steadily since ’98.
1988 Increased to $1
1998 $1 to $2
2004 $2 to $3
2007 $3 to $4
2010 $4 to $5 (proposed)
Carpool Currently free
Carpool in 2010 $2 or $3 (proposed)
Sources: Caltrans, Metropolitan Transportation Commission
maldax@sfexaminer.com
