The government agency responsible for Bay Area transportation is planning on dramatically expanding tolling on freeways in the region, as revealed in an interagency letter seen by SFGATE.
The Metropolitan Transportation Commission stated in the correspondence, sent to to the directors of the Bay Area’s county transportation agencies (CTAs) earlier this month, that they envision an "eventual transition to congestion pricing on all freeway lanes in corridors with robust transit options."
The letter also outlines a plan to “lower the speed limit to 55 mph on freeways to improve safety.”
According to the letter, the agency wants to eventually implement congestion pricing on all lanes of many, if not most, Bay Area freeways.
Express lanes — which require tolls for those not in a carpool or on public transportation — are currently being added to Highway 101 in San Mateo County. The MTC's letter states that “express lanes can be a stepping stone to more extensive congestion pricing strategies.”
The blueprint is part of Plan Bay Area 2050, a long-term roadmap charting the course for the future of the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area.
"The purpose of the email is to solicit the CTA's support for the Plan Bay Area 2050 Blueprint strategies as a package." MTC Assistant Director of Communications John Goodwin told SFGATE, "This package is likely to include all-lane tolling in select freeway corridors strictly as a planning assumption in order to help the final Plan Bay Area 2050 meet the 19 percent reduction in per-capita greenhouse gas emissions mandated by state law."
While the target date for the implementation of the expanded tolling is not until 2035, the all-lane tolling study may begin as soon as 2022.
"Because this theoretical start date is 15 years in the future ... this same email also asks the CTAs in the near term to collaborate with MTC on a study of all-lane tolling," Goodwin said.
The San Mateo Daily Journal reports that at an Express Lanes Joint Powers Authority meeting last week elected officials agreed to study, but not yet endorse the policy proposals. “We support studying it, but we have reservations about many of these policies and we’re not committing to them until the studies are complete,” said Burlingame mayor Emily Beach.
More information on Plan Bay Area 2050 can be found here.
Andrew Chamings is an editor at SFGATE. Email: Andrew.Chamings@sfgate.com | Twitter: @AndrewChamings
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August 19, 2020 at 06:12AM
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Tolls reportedly coming to 'many if not most' Bay Area freeways - SFGate
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