Regular commuters who drive across the Golden Gate Bridge will be giving the agency that runs the span another $60 or so over the next year beginning Wednesday.
That’s when tolls increase by 25 cents, part of a five-year plan to raise tolls by $2 by 2018. With all-electronic tolls now on the bridge — all toll takers were eliminated in March 2013 — the cost to cross can be raised by less than whole dollars without fear of a traffic backup because no change has to be made.
Golden Gate Bridge drivers began paying another dollar to cross the span last April, bringing the FasTrak toll to $6 and the pay-by-plate fee to $7. Now those tolls will go up by 25 cents Wednesday, then by another 25 cents in July 2016, 2017 and 2018. That will put the FasTrak toll at $7 and the pay-by-plate toll at $8 by July 2018.
Carpools — vehicles with three or more people between 5 a.m. to 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. — now pay $4 and will pay $4.25 as of Wednesday.
To cross the span daily for the coming year — minus two weeks for vacations — the average commuter will pay about $1,560 in tolls.
“This is an easy way to slip a new toll under the radar,” said Susan Deluxe of Tiburon, a longtime critic of the bridge district. “It’s a small amount and doesn’t raise the hackles of the public. But it adds up of course.”
The five-year toll plan raises $138 million over five years. The district still has a projected five-year, $33 million deficit.
“Our capital needs for our aging buses, ferries, facilities and the bridge itself necessitated we set aside more money for those improvements, along with the movable median barrier,” said Denis Mulligan, bridge general manager, explaining the toll increases. “We have growing capital needs.”
Marin residents bear the brunt of paying tolls. County drivers make up almost 40 percent of those who cross the span, according to the most recent licence plate data from the bridge district. San Francisco residents make up 23 percent of crossings, Sonomans about 11 percent.
Bridge officials have noted that Marin enjoys the majority of transit subsidized by the tolls, which takes traffic off of Highway 101. Bus and ferry fares will also increase by 5 percent Wednesday.
Given limited sources of funding, it takes toll and transit increases to reduce the projected deficit to a manageable level, according to the district.
Bridge officials said steps have been taken beyond increasing tolls to cut costs, noting there are roughly 25 percent fewer staffers than a decade ago. There have also been changes to benefits packages to lessen costs to the public.
But Deluxe says the appointed bridge board needs to be elected so that they are more sensitive to the public.
“A quarter toll increase here, a quarter increase there and there is no accountability,” she said. “Until that board is elected we are at their mercy.”
