Coronado Toll Lowered to $1 Despite Protest

Despite objections from Coronado officials who said they fear their city will be overrun by beachgoing inlanders, the California Transportation Commission on Thursday voted to implement a lower toll schedule for motorists crossing the San Diego-Coronado Bay Bridge.

The basic cost of crossing the bridge into Coronado by car or pickup truck will drop to $1 from $1.20 in July, while car pools, buses and motorcycles will be able to cross the bridge free, the commission decided.

The price of commuter tickets purchased in advance will drop to 60 cents from 70 cents.

The action comes two years after the $50 million in bonds sold to build the bridge were repaid by toll revenues. The commission has been studying toll alternatives ever since, extending the existing toll schedule every few months along the way.

Continuing Controversy

A continuing controversy over what kind of improvements can be made to ease the traffic impact on the Coronado side of the bridge had delayed the decision.

The Coronado City Council had long requested that the tolls be kept at their current levels and used to build a tunnel under Coronado to the North Island Naval Air Station. But the commissioners opposed construction of such a tunnel and instead favored building a six-lane parkway from the bridge to the Navy base.

The commission had waited for the outcome of an advisory vote on the tunnel taken earlier this month. Voters in the city turned down the tunnel idea by a wide margin, leading to Thursday’s lowering of the toll.

The commission agreed to review the issue next May, after the City Council has decided whether or not it wants the parkway built through town, which would require condemning 66 private homes to expand existing streets. If the new road is not built, the commission may further reduce bridge tolls next year.

Coronado Mayor R. H. Dorman, conceding that the tunnel will never be built, still argued Thursday for a modified car-pool toll schedule that would allow free passage only during peak traffic hours. He said to do otherwise would encourage San Diegans to flock across the bridge on weekends to sun themselves alongside Coronado residents on the peninsula’s wide, sandy beaches.

“We would like to limit car pools to the time people are going to work,” Dorman said. “We’re just going to be inundated. To let them come free if two people are in the car 24 hours a day, it’s just going to overwhelm the city.”

Communication Problems

But California Department of Transportation officials said it would be a burdensome administrative task to open and close a free lane and toll booth before and after peak hours. They also said it would be too complicated to alert motorists about the different rates at different times of the day.

“One problem is communicating to the public by signing,” said Allan Hendrix, chief of program development for the department’s division of highways. “Another problem is enforcing this. We have to have someone out there to catch the crooks when they’re supposed to pay and they don’t.

“A third problem is we will either have to close the lane and restrict the capacity of the toll plaza, or we will have to have someone out there to collect the tolls who we wouldn’t otherwise have to have on staff.”

Transportation Commissioner Tom Hawthorne of Escondido said he was sympathetic to the city’s concerns but could not go along with the request.

“We don’t want you to put a gate up on the city of Coronado,” he said. “It’s part of California.”