Richmond-San Rafael Bridge Ripping Out Its Toll Booths This Month

"The Richmond-San Rafael Bridge has not used its toll booths since going all FasTrak in 2020, and those booths are now being ripped out, in a process that is also scheduled for the SF Bay Bridge. It's been a full five years since human toll-takers have worked in the toll plazas on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, and the toll-paying has been handled exclusively by FasTrak (or license plate tolling). And yet five years later, the toll booths are still there."

"ORT is the future for all toll bridge plazas in the Bay Area and the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge will be the first to see the transition to ORT, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) that oversees the six major state-run Bay Area bridges said in a statement to KRON4. We mention the MTC oversees operations of six bridges, and that happens to also include the San Francisco Bay Bridge. They also run the Antioch Bridge, Benicia-Martinez Bridge, Carquinez Bridge, Dumbarton Bridge, and San Mateo Bridge. And all six of those are eventually getting their toll booths taken out for smoother traffic flow. First, crews plan to repaint the stripes on the bridge's interstate I-580 so that drivers do not have to be sequestered into toll booth lanes. Then they will install some new overhead roofing, equipped with FasTrak readers that can ping your FasTrak even when you are driving at highway speeds."

The Richmond-San Rafael Bridge stopped using human toll-takers in 2020 and has been tolled exclusively by FasTrak or license-plate tolling since. The physical toll booths remained for five years but removal has begun to enable Open Road Tolling (ORT), allowing drivers to pass without slowing. The Metropolitan Transportation Commission oversees six state-run Bay Area bridges and plans to transition them to ORT, including the San Francisco Bay Bridge, Antioch, Benicia-Martinez, Carquinez, Dumbarton, and San Mateo bridges. Preparations include repainting I-580 lane markings and installing overhead roofing with FasTrak readers to read tags at highway speeds; the Bay Bridge removal is scheduled for 2028.

Read at sfist.com