Bay Area officials approve toll-lane network

Rachel Gordon, Chronicle Staff Writer

Thursday, July 24, 2008


(07-23) 21:14 PDT San Francisco -- Solo drivers would be able to a pay a toll for the privilege of using carpool lanes to speed their commutes on a dozen highways from the South Bay to Sonoma and east under a plan approved Wednesday by Bay Area transportation officials.

The system would be phased in over nearly two decades, starting in late 2010 or early 2011, and the first pilot projects would open on two congested corridors: southbound Interstate 680 over the Sunol Grade and both directions of Interstate 580 between Livermore and the I-680 interchange, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, a regional planning and funding agency, which is coordinating the plan.

Eventually, the toll-lane network would be expanded to cover nearly 800 of the region's 1,200 miles of freeway lanes.

The price of the tolls hasn't been decided, but it could start out at a couple of dimes per mile. Motorists would use FasTrak transponders to pay.

The region-wide project along segments of 12 highways would cost an estimated $3.7 billion to build. Officials anticipate the system will generate more than $6 billion in 25 years - enough money to cover the project's expenses and produce additional cash for other roadway and transit improvements.

And while making money is an important goal, it's not the only one, said John Goodwin, spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Commission.

"On most days, on most corridors, we have unused capacity in the carpool lanes, and this is making more efficient use of our resources," he said. "We can't build our way out of congestion."

While the toll lanes won't cut down the number of cars on Bay Area highways, they should reduce congestion by getting some drivers out of the most jammed lanes and luring them to the less-crowded carpool lanes if they pay.

Officials estimate that by 2035, under the new plan, motorists traveling in the general lanes would move at an average speed of 39 mph, while motorists in the carpool or express lanes would be moving at an average speed of 54 mph.

Officials don't expect individual drivers to use the toll roads every day, but when pressed for time.

"There's been debate over whether these will be Lexus lanes" - a perk for wealthy drivers - "but that's not the case," said Bijan Sartipi, the Caltrans director for much of the Bay Area.

He pointed to a California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo study of toll lanes in Southern California that found they are used by people of all incomes. It also found that the same drivers don't always use them every day. Instead, some drivers use them only when it pays to get somewhere on time - for example, to work or to a day-care center that imposes a charge for late pick-ups.

The amount of the toll would fluctuate based on demand. During peak periods, when congestion is the worst, the charge would be higher. The price could vary minute by minute, road by road.

As congestion builds on the express lanes, the toll would go up to discourage solo drivers from using them and keep traffic flowing at a faster clip than the normal lanes.

Officials anticipate that solo drivers initially would pay 20 to 60 cents per mile in the early years of the program, and perhaps up to $1 per mile in 2030. Carpools, vanpools, mass transit and motorcyclists would continue to use the priority lanes for free.

Under the scheme, people driving alone would enter and exit the express lanes at designated locations and be tracked via a network of electronic readers erected along the freeways that link to a FasTrak transponder in the vehicles.

The charge would be automatically deducted from prepaid accounts, just as the FasTrak system now operates on Bay Area bridges.

The pay-as-you-go express lanes are in use on Highway 91 in Orange County, I-15 in San Diego and highways in Houston, Minneapolis and Denver.

In the Bay Area, the toll roads would be incorporated into existing carpool lanes, which now comprise about 350 miles of freeway, and the approximately 140 miles of additional carpool lanes now under construction. The plan calls for building another 300 or so miles of the lanes to fill in the gaps and create a seamless network.

The Metropolitan Transportation Commission approved the funding plan for the project Wednesday, with the goal of having all the express lanes in place by 2025. However, with the exception of a handful of demonstration corridors - two each in Alameda and Santa Clara counties - state lawmakers would have to grant the Bay Area permission to proceed. A bill to do that is pending in Sacramento.

The commission also is working with county congestion management agencies, Caltrans and the California Highway Patrol to turn the idea into reality.