Impact of Peak and Off-Peak Tolls on Traffic in San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge Corridor in California

Abstract

The San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge is located in the heart of the San Francisco Bay Area in California and connects two of the largest cities in northern California over San Francisco Bay. In July 2010, the Bay Area Toll Authority (BATA) increased tolls on the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge from a flat toll collected westbound only to weekday peak and off-peak tolls. BATA also instituted a carpool toll of $2.50 (previously carpools crossed for free) payable by FasTrak electronic toll collection tag only. With floating-car data provided by BATA, the change in travel time for the I-80, I-580, and I-880 approaches was computed by payment type (cash, FasTrak, and high-occupancy vehicle access lanes) and hour. Travel times were found to have been reduced by 0 to 16 min for cash customers (varying by time of day and approach), with varying results for FasTrak customers and little change for high-occupancy vehicle customers. Data collected by BATA at the toll plaza were analyzed by hour and payment type. The analysis found that the number of vehicles in the carpool lanes was reduced by more than 20% at times, whereas FasTrak volumes remained steady or increased and cash volumes were slightly lower than before the toll switch.