Bay Area Toll Bridges go cash-free

[jdbx]

https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2020/03/20/bay-area-bridges-go-cash-free-to-contain-coronavirus/

It looks like the options for paying bridge toll as of today are either FasTrak or de-facto pay-by-plate.  I think cashless tolling was going to be inevitable for the Bay Area bridges, the current coronavirus crisis has just sped that transition.

I have a suspicion that even once this crisis is over, cash toll collection will be a thing of the past in the Bay Area.

[gonealookin]

Good riddance, and if we could get a bipartisan push for that national standard for a single transponder and a single national toll account, I'd appreciate it.

[vdeane]

Good riddance, and if we could get a bipartisan push for that national standard for a single transponder and a single national toll account, I'd appreciate it.

I think it was MAP-21 that required the nation to be interoperable by 2016.  Obviously that never happened.

[jeffe]

I think it was MAP-21 that required the nation to be interoperable by 2016.  Obviously that never happened.

There's a multi-year project to remove the toll plazas and switch to open road tolling at all seven state owned bridges in the Bay Area. 
The Golden Gate bridge is building a new toll gantry and will eventually remove the existing toll booths. 

Both projects will switch all of the equipment from Title 21 (only used in California) to the ISO/IEC 18000-63 (6C) standard which will be used in the entire US.

As jdbx noted, it seems unlikely that cash collection will resume after the Covid-19 issue is over, especially since all of the bridges will transition open road tolling.

[vdeane]

The E-ZPass zone does not use 6C, though, so that's not really nationwide interoperability then, is it?

[jeffe]

The E-ZPass zone does not use 6C, though, so that's not really nationwide interoperability then, is it?

Yeah, E-ZPass uses TDM.  Some providers are switching to dual TDM/6C transponders, but there doesn't appear to be a widespread push.

MAP-21 had neither funding nor penalties for the 2016 interoperable deadline.  Seems like we'd need new legislation that does both in order to get some real traction on this.