Dan Walters

A few days ago, the toll for driving on San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge took another jump. It will now cost motorists at least $6.75 to cross the entrance to San Francisco Bay — if they are using carpool lanes — and as much as $9.75 if they are invoiced for their crossing.

It appears the tolls are destined to climb even higher.

The iconic bridge is owned by the multi-county Golden Gate Bridge Highway and Transportation District, whose directors have directed a series of toll increases over five years. They were done to cover rising maintenance costs and — this is the most important factor — offset a decline in traffic since the COVID-19 pandemic began three-plus years ago.

It’s an aspect of a larger phenomenon that has upended the San Francisco Bay Area’s economy. Many workers, particularly those in technology and financial services, shifted to working remotely when the pandemic struck and the work-from-home tendency has persisted after the health threat eased.

Downtown San Francisco suffered what some call a “doom loop” of reduced in-place employment, wholesale declines in office space usage and closure of retail businesses.

Fewer commuters also translated into lower bridge toll income and very sharp drops in transit use and revenues, particularly on the Bay Area Rapid Transit system.

BART and other transit systems pleaded with Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislators for a package of state aid to offset declining farebox revenue and got a $5.1 billion, four-year commitment in the new state budget.

“Public transportation is easy to take for granted, but allowing it to collapse would have been devastating for our state’s future,” state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, said. “This budget extends a critical lifeline that will help transit agencies maintain service while making critical improvements to cleanliness and safety.”

However, Wiener added, “the future of public transportation in the Bay Area is still under threat due to pandemic-related operational deficits that, without help, will lead to severe service cuts.”

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Wiener and other Bay Area legislators are proposing a $1.50 per vehicle hike on motorists who use the region’s seven state-owned bridges to provide transit systems with more operating revenue. The nonstate Golden Gate Bridge would not be affected by the proposal but, as noted earlier, is already raising its prices.

The $1.50 toll increase has been amended into a Wiener bill, Senate Bill 532, that has already passed the Senate and is pending in the Assembly, which could lead to fast track (no pun intended) approval.

Auto tolls on the seven bridges are generally $7 now, so Wiener’s bill would boost them to $8.50, roughly in line with the new Golden Gate Bridge tolls.

“Bay Area transit ridership continues to climb, but it’s not happening quickly enough to make up for the loss of federal emergency assistance,” Wiener said. “SB 532 provides critical lifeline funding for our transit systems — ensuring they have the resources they need to provide safe, reliable service for our residents.”

How, one might wonder, would raising the already stiff tolls on Bay Area bridges impact a region that is struggling to recover economically from the pandemic?

Classic economics would say that increasing their commuting costs would make San Francisco’s workers even less likely to return to their cubicles and therefore hinder downtown recovery.

However, perhaps it would merely persuade them to take BART or other transit services, thus reducing auto traffic on the bridges, which in turn would decrease revenues from the new tolls.

Dan Walters has been a journalist for more than 60 years, spending all but a few of those years working for California newspapers. He began his professional career in 1960, at age 16, at the Humboldt Times. CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics. He can be reached at dan@calmatters.org.

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Great increases are days away from taking effect on seven bridges in the San Francisco area. What ultimately happens with the money is not yet certain.

The second of three scheduled toll increases approved by voters three years ago is set to take effect the first of the year.

A lawsuit awaiting review in the California Supreme Court will determine whether the voter-approved initiative to raise bridge tolls will be upheld.

Regional measure 3

In June 2018, voters in the San Francisco area approved Regional Measure 3 to pay more to cross bridges to secure more money for transportation work throughout the region.

By a 55% to 45% margin, voters in the city and county of San Francisco and the other eight Bay Area counties approved a question to double bridge tolls. The additional revenue is touted to help get $4.45 billion in transportation work done over the next 25 years, including a project to reduce truck traffic.

Approval of Measure 3 required a simple majority of votes cast in all nine counties.

A majority of voters in Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano and Sonoma counties agreed to increase toll rates by $3 over six years on the seven state-operated bridges in the area.

The Golden Gate Bridge is exempt. The bridge is run independently of the state.

The first $1 increase took effect on Jan 1, 2019. Another increase is slated to take effect on Jan 1, 2022. The third of three increases is set for Jan 1, 2025.

After 2025, tolls could be increased for inflation.

Additional great revenue collected since the first increase has topped $300 million. The revenue is being held in escrow awaiting the outcome of legal challenges. Revenue resulting from the upcoming toll increase also will be put into escrow.

California Supreme Court to settle issue

The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association challenged the measure’s outcome. The group argues that tolls are a tax.

California law requires two-thirds of voters to approve a change in tax collection.

In 2020, the First District Court of Appeals sided with the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and the Bay Area Toll Authority that the tolls are not taxes. Instead, the court agreed the higher tolls are a fee increase.

A San Francisco superior court had the same interpretation.

The issue has since been sent to the California Supreme Court. If the court rules in favor of challengers, funds collected since 2019 will be returned to bridge users.

Truck projects included

Approval of Measure 3 is touted to benefit 35 projects intended to take vehicles off the road and eliminate bottlenecks on the Bay Area’s most heavily traveled routes.

An estimated $160 million will be designated for projects to reduce truck traffic congestion and mitigate environmental effects.

Eligible projects include improvements in Alameda County to enable more goods to be shipped by rail, and access improvements to Interstates 580, 80 and 880, and to the Port of Oakland.

A separate project covers I-80 westbound truck scales. Specifically, $105 million is set to be allocated to “improve freight mobility, reliability, and safety” on the I-80 corridor by funding improvements to the westbound truck scales in Solano County.

Jan 1 increase

Tolls will rise by $1 on Jan. 1: to $7 for two-axle vehicles, $17 for axles, $22 for four axles, $27 for five axles, $32 for six axles, and $37 for combinations with seven or more axles.

Discounts are available for certain motorists. LL

More Land Line coverage of news from California is available.

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The Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District is offering refunds to tens of thousands of people who overcharged on the bridge in the past few months, a district spokesman said.

It was about the fact that people in two-axle vehicles such as a standard vehicle or a pickup have inflated the toll rate for multi-axle vehicles such as a car with a trailer. The district has identified around 32,000 such transactions since the beginning of April, which, according to spokesman Paolo Cosulich-Schwartz, corresponds to less than 1% of all transactions during this period.

The bridge district said people charged the wrong toll should expect a refund within four to six weeks. FasTrak customers will receive a refund credit to their account, while customers who have already paid the excessive toll by invoice will receive a refund in their original form of payment.

The district recommends that people contact FasTrak only if their refund is not received within four to six weeks because of the above-average call volume to customer service.

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