Keep your cash: Golden Gate Bridge tolls go all electronic Wednesday

Workers use a crane to lower a new sign onto the top of the Golden Gate Bridge toll plaza. Starting Wednesday, the bridge will no longer have toll-booth operators.

By Maria L. La Ganga

March 25, 2013 12 AM PT

SAN FRANCISCO -- Keep your wallet in your pocket.

At least when you’re crossing the Golden Gate Bridge into the City That Knows How. Starting Wednesday morning, the humans will be gone from the iconic structure’s toll booths, the windows will be covered and all-electronic tolling will go live.

Regular bridge crossers are advised to open a FasTrak account, which can be done online at www.bayareafastrak.org. Motorists using the system’s dashboard transponders get discounted toll rates ($5 instead of the usual $6).

The Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District figures that about 70% of all vehicles crossing the bridge already use FasTrak accounts, which are good on all Bay Area bridges and express lanes.

Drivers without FasTrak accounts have three other options for paying the toll. They can open a license-plate account; each time a registered vehicle crosses the bridge, the driver’s credit card is charged the full toll.

Travelers also can make a one-time payment of up to 30 days before or 48 hours after crossing the bridge by phone, online or in person at a cash-payment location.

And finally, there is the so-called toll-invoice option. Vehicles crossing the bridge without having arranged payment will have an image of their license plate captured via camera and an invoice will be mailed to the registered owner.

Drivers who do not pay the invoice will receive a violation notice and will be fined $25 for each unpaid toll. The more violations, the higher the penalties. Eventually the DMV will be notified and will withhold future registration until the penalties are paid.

Bridge district officials say the conversion will speed up traffic and save money. More information is available at https://www.goldengate.org/tolls/.

Starting with the Wednesday morning commute, according to the district’s new slogan, motorists must “drive on through to the other side. ... No stopping, ever. Trippy.”

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Email: maria.laganga@latimes.com

Twitter: @marialaganga

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Maria L. La Ganga

Maria L. La Ganga is the deputy managing editor for California and Metro, overseeing the Los Angeles Times’ largest editorial department. She joined The Times in 1981 as an academic intern, splitting her time between the former Metro section and National Dragster, the official publication of the National Hot Rod Assn. She has served as Seattle bureau chief, San Francisco bureau chief, edited in the Business section and pitched in on six presidential elections, five for The Times and one for the Guardian. La Ganga left The Times in 2015 and returned in 2018 after a brief hiatus during which she wrote for the Guardian and the Idaho Statesman. She was named city editor in 2022 and promoted to her current role in 2024. La Ganga graduated from Granada Hills High School in the San Fernando Valley and Cal State Northridge, where she studied English literature and journalism.

Keep your cash: Golden Gate Bridge tolls go all electronic Wednesday

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