New Policies for Carpool Lanes on Bridge Approaches Also Take Effect

, /PRNewswire/ – With the new year starting next Thursday, the Bay Area Toll Authority (BATA) reminds drivers that tolls at the region’s seven state-owned toll bridges will go up by 50 cents on Jan. 1, 2026. This will be the first in a series of five toll increases to be phased in each January through 2030, with the additional funds to be used only to pay for the maintenance, rehabilitation and operation of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and the Antioch, Benicia-Martinez, Carquinez, Dumbarton, Richmond-San Rafael and San Mateo-Hayward bridges.

BATA Logo (PRNewsfoto/Bay Area Toll Authority)

Approved by BATA in late 2024, the new toll schedule includes a tiered rate structure aimed at encouraging more customers to pay electronically with FasTrak® toll tags. Because payment with FasTrak carries lower administrative costs than payment through a license plate account or by returning payment with an invoice received in the mail, customers will pay a premium for using a pre-registered license plate account or for invoiced tolling. To give customers ample time to sign up for FasTrak, BATA last year voted to delay the start of the tiered pricing structure until 2027.

Tolls for all regular two-axle cars and trucks will increase to $8.50 from the current $8 on Jan. 1, 2026. Tolls for customers who pay with FasTrak tags will then rise to $9 in 2027; to $9.50 in 2028; to $10 in 2029; and then to $10.50 in 2030. Tolls for customers who use a pre-registered license plate account will climb to $9.25 in 2027; to $9.75 in 2028; to $10.25 in 2029 and to $10.75 in 2030. Invoiced tolls will go to $10 in 2027; $10.50 in 2028; $11 in 2029; and $11.50 in 2030.

Tolls for large freight trucks and other vehicle/trailer combinations with three or more axles will rise by 50 cents per axle each year from 2026 through 2030.

BATA last year also set a Jan. 1, 2026, start date for updated policies about the use of high-occupancy vehicles on approaches to the Bay Area’s state-owned toll bridges. These include a uniform three-person occupancy requirement for half-price tolls during weekday commute periods at all seven bridges. Carpool vehicles approaching the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge must use a dedicated carpool lane, but can use either a standard FasTrak tag or a FasTrak Flex tag set to the ’3+" position to receive the 50 percent discount available weekdays from 5 a.m. to 10 a.m. and from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. Carpoolers at the six other state-owned bridges must use a dedicated carpool lane and pay their tolls with a FasTrak Flex toll tag set to the ‘3+’ position to receive the peak-period discount.

The new policies also will allow vehicles with two occupants and a switchable FasTrak Flex toll tag set to the ‘2’ position to use the carpool lanes on the approaches to the Antioch, Benicia-Martinez, Carquinez, Dumbarton, Richmond-San Rafael and San Mateo-Hayward bridges. These two-occupant vehicles will not receive the 50 percent carpool discount but will be able to use the carpool lanes to save time traveling through the toll plazas. Use of the carpool lanes on approaches to the Bay Bridge still will require at least three occupants.

The new carpool policies are designed to improve safety on the toll bridge approaches by minimizing ‘weaving’ between lanes and to increase person-throughput by prioritizing access for buses and carpools. The policy change will optimize lane configurations as now-obsolete toll booths are removed as part of the coming transition to open-road tolling. The Richmond-San Rafael Bridge will be the first of the state-owned bridges to convert to open-road tolling. Crews are expected to begin work later this month on the construction and demolition projects at the Richmond end of the bridge needed to institute open-road tolling. Completion is scheduled sometime in the new year.

BATA, which is directed by the same policy board as the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), administers toll revenues from the Bay Area’s seven state-owned toll bridges. Toll revenues from the Golden Gate Bridge are administered by the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District, which joined with BATA to operate a single regional FasTrak customer service center in San Francisco. MTC is the transportation planning, financing and coordinating agency for the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area.

SOURCE Metropolitan Transportation Commission