Toll Changes Start Thursday
OAKLAND, Calif. (KCBS) Tolls will be going up on all Bay Area bridges on Thursday, except the Golden Gate Bridge.
And even that span will be joining the others in starting to charge carpoolers.
Tolls on the bridges will be going up to $5 except on the Bay Bridge, which will be the first in California to try "congestion pricing."
"If you drive in the off-peak times, your tolls aren't going to change at all," said Randy Rentschler with the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. "If you drive during carpool hours, your charge is going to be $6 from the current $4."
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The Bay Bridge toll will still be $4 during off-peak hours and $5 on weekends. [pullquote quote="If you drive during carpool hours, your charge is going to be $6 from the current $4." credit="Randy Rentschler with the MTC"]
Rentschler said that the $6 weekday rush hour toll is not designed to raise more money, but to motivate commuters to switch to public transit or carpool, so that there's less traffic and less pollution on the span and highways leading to it.
"Our studies show that we will have a reduction in congestion and that we will have some travel time savings on those corridors," he said.
The money will help pay for seismic retrofits and the new eastern span of the Bay Bridge.
