MTC Plans to Put More Drivers on FasTrak(R)

$100 in Free Tolls Awarded Daily

Strategy Includes Financial Incentives, More Lane Conversions, Improved Signage and Striping, Expanded Marketing

OAKLAND, Calif., May 10 -- As part of a comprehensive plan to expand and improve the FasTrak(R) electronic toll collection program, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) today announced that each day from Monday, May 15 through Wednesday, May 31 it will award one randomly selected new FasTrak(R) customer with $100 in free tolls.

"For most everyday commuters, a hundred bucks will cover bridge tolls for at least a month," explained MTC Commissioner and Marin County Supervisor Steve Kinsey, who chairs MTC's Bay Area Toll Authority (BATA) Oversight Committee.

Winners of the $100 free toll awards will be announced each afternoon on KFOG-104.5 FM during the 5 o'clock hour. To be eligible, new customers must enroll online at 511.org, or open their accounts at a satellite FasTrak(R) customer service center that will be established at the Bay Bridge toll plaza administration building from Monday, May 15 through Sunday, May 21. The center will provide immediate delivery of FasTrak(R) transponders to customers who have an active e-mail address and open their accounts with a credit card. The temporary customer service center will be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays, and from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Motorists can use the far left lane in either the westbound or eastbound direction to access the administration building's parking lot.

In addition to announcing the daily awards of $100 in free tolls, the BATA Oversight Committee today released for review and comment its draft FasTrak(R) Strategic Plan, which details a two-year strategy for improving FasTrak(R) marketing and distribution; converting more lanes at toll plazas to FasTrak(R)-only lanes; testing new tolling technologies to improve operating efficiencies; and investigating the use of FasTrak(R) transponders to pay for parking in select locations.

More Financial Incentives

As MTC steps up its FasTrak(R) marketing in the months ahead, the Commission is expected to begin offering $10 to $15 in free tolls to all new account holders, and to test a program beginning in late August 2006 for distributing FasTrak(R) transponders at select retail stores around the Bay Area.

Among the other financial incentives in the draft FasTrak(R) Strategic Plan is a recommendation that the initial pre-paid toll balance be reduced to $25 from the current $40 for FasTrak(R) customers who open their accounts with a credit card. No deposit is required for customers who use a credit card to open their FasTrak(R) accounts and request three or fewer transponders. For customers who request more than three transponders or do not link their account to a credit card, the draft plan recommends that the refundable deposit be reduced to $20 from the current $30.

70 percent Market Share, Open-Road Tolling

The aim of the draft FasTrak(R) Strategic Plan is to boost the percentage of motorists who use FasTrak(R) to pay their tolls to 70 percent during peak weekday commute periods and 50 percent on weekends. While FasTrak(R)-equipped vehicles currently account for about 70 percent of morning commute traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge, the figure for the region's seven state-owned bridges is just 42 percent during peak periods and just under 40 percent of bridge traffic overall. To accommodate 70 percent FasTrak(R) usage, the draft FasTrak(R) Strategic Plan proposes converting more lanes to FasTrak(R)-only in April 2007 at five of the state-owned toll bridges and introducing three lanes of open-road tolling (which allows motorists to pass through the toll facility at highway speeds using their FasTrak(R) toll tag) at the new Benicia-Martinez Bridge toll plaza when the new span opens in late 2007. This would mark the first use of open-road tolling anywhere in the Bay Area.

More Separation Upstream

The conversion of more cash lanes to FasTrak(R)-only would be accompanied by lane striping and signage improvements to separate FasTrak(R) traffic and cash tollpayers as far in advance of the toll plazas as possible. In addition, the Strategic Plan calls for FasTrak(R)-only lanes to be grouped together at the left side of the toll plazas to the extent feasible, with cash lanes to the right side of the toll plazas and plaza approaches. A complete list of the scheduled lane conversions -- and diagrams of the planned lane configurations at each toll plaza -- is available at www.bayareafastrak.org and on the MTC Web site at www.mtc.ca.gov.

According to Rod McMillan, director of Bridge Oversight and Operations for MTC, "Directing traffic to the correct lanes well before the toll plaza is critical. We want to prevent traffic in the slower-moving cash lanes from interfering with FasTrak(R) customers. So we're planning to install signs directly over the lanes, and to extend the pavement striping for FasTrak(R)- only lanes as far upstream as we can to provide the maximum possible advantage for vehicles with FasTrak(R)."

Planned signage improvements include the use of changeable message signs at the toll plazas and along the approaches. This will allow BATA the flexibility to increase or decrease the number of FasTrak(R)-only lanes as needed.

Lane Conversions Could Mean More Delays for Cash Tollpayers

FasTrak(R) can be used in every lane at every toll plaza at every Bay Area toll bridge. FasTrak(R)-only lanes can handle about three times as many vehicles per hour as lanes where drivers stop to pay cash. There currently are nearly 500,000 FasTrak(R) accounts now open throughout the Bay Area. Traffic analysis done by MTC and Caltrans indicates that if more toll lanes are converted to FasTrak(R)-only and FasTrak(R) enrollment does not increase, cash tollpayers likely would face significant additional delay at toll plazas. Congestion could be especially severe at the Dumbarton Bridge, where delays for cash tollpayers could increase by as much as 30 to 35 minutes during peak periods, and at the Carquinez Bridge, where cash payers could face 25 to 30 minutes of additional delay.

The BATA Oversight Committee will vote on the proposed FasTrak(R) Strategic Plan at its next meeting on June 14, and will consider public comment on the plan until that date. If approved by the BATA Oversight Committee, the proposed FasTrak(R) Strategic Plan would be considered by the full Bay Area Toll Authority at its regularly scheduled meeting on June 28. The full FasTrak(R) Strategic Plan can be viewed on the MTC Web site at www.mtc.ca.gov.

MTC is the transportation planning, financing and coordinating agency for the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area. BATA, which is directed by the same policy board as MTC, administers toll revenues from the Bay Area's seven state-owned toll bridges.