Another slight for Green HOV stickers

No- you can still pay w/cash on the GW Bridge-
We inadvertently went through an EZPass lane while having the transponder still in the glovebox- so I got the letter in the mail to pay the regular fee in 7 days or pay the regular fee plus a $52 "administrative" fee.

 

gotcha. i wonder if there is info on line for all the tolls around the country? i'll have to take a look. no problems from here to florida, (other than tolls have skyrocketed the last few years.)

 

we've had them as long as i have been around. i think cali has always been more democratic in these things. i don't know whose idea they were originally, but they are getting more attention everywhere as revenue raisers. on the way to floriday, we pay on the mass turnpike, the tappen zee bridge, the garden state parkway, the new jersey turnpike, the delaware bridge, the baltimore tunnel, and another before we hit the beltway. it's free after that because we're on 95 (federal highway) but there are signs around calling for and against tolls.

 

Hertz's service costs $3/day with a maximum of $15/month. Hardly offensive.
PlatePass - High speed, all-electronic non-stop toll collection for car rentals.
Honestly I have no sympathy for this. It drives me insane how many people cross Bay Area bridges without fastrak on a daily basis. This creates more emissions, congestion, pollution for everyone.

Seems pretty obvious to me. Way too many pips in the area resulting in both lost revenue and slower HOV lanes.

 

when we came over the bay bridge from oakland to san francisco, it was a logjam at the toll. i doubt there were many fast passes.

 

yep. what's worse, they actually convert some of the fastrak lanes into cash ones at off-peak hours. AND, the price of the toll is exactly the same regardless of how you pay it. can you believe that? they are actually indirectly encouraging people to use cash.
just compare – EZPass for crossing into NYC costs $13 in cash, $10.25 EZPass peak, $8.25 EZPass off-peak. If they implemented a similar price differential here, they could probably get everyone off using cash quickly – and save some money by eliminating the need for toll collectors (which was the motivation for GG's changes).
(never mind that EZPass costs money, while Fastrak here is absolutely free)

 

HOV or high occupancy vehicle lane - two or more occupants per vehicle
Toll road or bridge - pay to use

Hybrid, EV, CNG or XYZ vehicles should not be excluded simply because they are "Green". Feel noble that you save money, fuel and reduce pollution. However, they do not reduce traffic and the tolls still need to be paid. I drive a Hybrid and that is my opinion, but what do I know?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯​

 

If you are talking about the Bay Bridge, none of the FasTrak lanes convert to cash only at any point. There are dedicated FasTrak-only lanes, and the rest of the lanes are Cash/FasTrak. During peak times, two of the Cash/FasTrak lanes convert to FasTrak only. See https://www.bayareafastrak.org/vector/static/facilities/LaneDiagSF-Oak-final.pdf for a map of the lanes.

All tollbooth lanes on all 8 Bay Area bridges accept FasTrak. There are no cash-only lanes.

 

All pigs are equal?

Hey man...not my bridge...not my state. However (comma!) I appreciate the intel report about the GGB. I'll be sure and add it to the list of reasons that I will not be voluntarily returning to the Golden State any time soon!

I've always thought that it was kinda goofy to give some "green" vehicles a pass on the HOV lane use. Mostly...a Pip is a Prius with a bigger battery and a smaller gas tank.
I also love the irony.
People screech at the idea of having a toll "express" lane as yet another break for well-heeled drivers, but somehow giving the same break to the eco-chic doesn't generate nearly as much static.
I appreciate the fact that the bunny-huggers have more skin in the game, but they also get their fair share of breaks from my beloved government.

A "fair" system?
Doesn't exist.

 

Around here, they're slowly eliminating the toll collectors, but they're increasing the tolls in exchange.

 

Lol well that depends on your reference point. You can either say a cash lane becomes a FasTrak lane at rush hour or you can say a FasTrak lane reverts to a cash lane outside of peak hours. Same thing right?
Calling the cash lanes FasTrak lanes is a joke. What's the point of having FasTrak if you have to come to a full stop to pay the toll?
The far left lane at the plaza, which is a carpool lane during peak hours, is the one that reverts at off-peak periods. It is idiocy, pure and simple.
There should be two cash lanes at that toll plaza and paying cash should cost you $5 extra during off-peak hours and $6 more during rush hour. See the NYC example above.

 

I see your point as it applies to tribalism within the group. Just do not understand why "any" Green vehicle should be given a discount or exclusion for same road use. Emergency and Public Transportation vehicles definitely, Motorcycles maybe, but not a private car just because it's cleaner and gets better mileage. On the same token, I do not feel they should have to pay higher state fees for the same reason.

 

To be clear here, there are 3 different types of FasTrak lanes.
1) FasTrak/Cash lane. 5 MPH max speed when you go through.
2) FastTrak only lane. 25 MPH max speed when you go through
3 FasTrak express lane. 55 MPH max speed when you go through.

The Benicia-Martinez bridge has types 1 & 3. All other bridges in the Bay Area have types 1 & 2.

 

I said Motorcycles "maybe". I think you missed my point.

 

No, not really. By default all lanes are FasTrak. That's the common denominator here. They don't ever stop being a FasTrak lane. Only 2 of the FastTrak/Cash lanes convert to FasTrak-only during peak times: Lanes 10 & 11 in the
very middle.

You don't have to stop to pay the toll, you just have to slow down to a reasonably safe speed, which is probably between 5 and 10 MPH. The exact quote from the FAQ is "For toll lanes that are shared with FasTrak and cash paying motorists, FasTrak users should proceed with extreme caution, being alert for stopped vehicles and toll collectors.". During rush-hour, I can see how you might be crawling at a pretty slow speed to begin with, so you wouldn't have to bother hitting the brakes.

I haven't tried going through the car-pool lanes during non-carpool times. My understanding is that those lanes are closed during non carpool times and you risk a ticket going through them during non carpool times. There is also a set of carpool-lanes to the far right of the toll plaza as well. Same caution applies.

That's a rather punitive toll to charge someone for not having FasTrak. They might be tourists. Or recently moved to the area and unfamiliar with things. Not really fair to do that.

 

It all goes to the reason for having HOV lanes. One line of reasoning is: reduce the number of cars so as to reduce congestion, thus to improve traffic flow for everyone. Another line of thinking is to reduce smog...putting two people in one car gets you half the emissions (or there about). But another way to reduce emissions is to have cars that produce much less than average smog, etc.. In CA, ~20 years ago they wanted to mandate car makers to sell EVs and other very low emissions (ULEV, SULEV) just for the purpose of getting some percentage of commuters to have very low emissions in the dense city areas ...think smog in the valleys around LA and SF.

Clearly getting a HOV sticker cannot work for everyone...if 25% or everyone got the lowest emitting cars there wouldn't be enough room for all of them in the HOV lanes...but the point of the incentive is to get more than a percent or two so these cars become mainstream. Look at how that has worked in the last decade for the regular Prius...just as desired. The Prius went from novelty in CA, to HOV stickers, to the best selling car model in CA.

Mike