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Ernest Quindanar was upset to learn this month that fees for the private 91 Express Lanes are going up--again. But like many fellow toll-paying commuters, he knows the alternative is brake-stomping congestion on the Riverside Freeway.

“The tolls are too much, but I don’t have a choice,” lamented the 58-year-old construction worker. “Traffic is too slow otherwise.”

Tolls on the private lanes, a 10-mile pathway along the gut of the clogged freeway, have gone up twice this year, six times in the past four years and can cost peak-hour commuters as much as $146 a month. On a per-mile basis, the tolls are among the highest in the nation. For many drivers, the economics of paying to drive are starting to make less and less sense.

“It’s definitely getting up there,” said Jose Soledad, 25, another regular Express Lanes customer and construction worker. “That’s what I spend on lunch. If it goes up more than $5, I think I’m going to have to quit using the tolls. I’d rather spend half an hour on the freeway than pay that.”

The fully automated tollway does not use toll booths to collect fees. Instead, customers create special accounts and are debited electronically when they drive beneath a radio sensor. An electronic transponder attached to the customer’s windshield tells the sensor to deduct the cost of the toll.

The 91 Express Lanes, which occupy the median strip of the Riverside Freeway, have different toll rates for different hours of the day. Rates are higher at times when traffic is heavy, lower when it’s light. Commuters heading home to Riverside County on Thursday and Friday evenings will pay the highest toll--$4.25.

Crush-hour drivers can expect to pay an additional $3.65 a week, thanks to the latest hikes.

Since billing statements for the automated toll road are sent out on a quarterly basis, some customers may not find out for weeks that the rates have increased and that they’re paying as much as $40 more a bill period.

“Nobody’s saying much about it now, but wait until they get that first statement. That’s when it’s really going to hit home,” said Express Lanes customer Steve Miller, 45. Like Quindanar, Miller works in construction, lives in Riverside County and must drive west to Orange County each day to get to work.

But unlike Quindanar, Miller said he’s not concerned about the toll increase.

“My employer reimburses me for all my tolls, so it’s no burden to me,” Miller said. “I don’t see how somebody can use it without being reimbursed though. I just don’t know how they can afford to use it.”

‘Value Pricing’ Helps Free Up Lanes, Wallets

Express Lanes General Manager Greg Hulsizer said the rate increase is intended not only to increase revenue, but to regulate the tollway. Hulsizer said that Thursday and Friday afternoons, the toll lanes are almost completely filled and traffic begins to slow, not exactly a favorable selling point for the private lanes.

Because of the rate increase, Hulsizer said, some motorists will submit to the hard economics and avoid using the lanes during peak hours, causing traffic flow to pick up. For example, commuters heading east on Friday evenings will pay the $4.25 toll between 4 and 6 p.m. But if drivers put off their return until 7 p.m., the toll drops to $3.75, and an hour after that it falls to $3.35.

The use of price increases to regulate traffic flow is called “value pricing,” Hulsizer said.

The 91 Express Lanes are owned by California Private Transportation Co., a firm battling a lawsuit filed by Riverside County that contends the lanes were built illegally. The median strip of the freeway should be reserved for public use, not private, for-profit operations, the suit claims.

The Express Lanes are independent from Orange County’s Foothill, Eastern and San Joaquin Hills tollways.

Not all commuters were about to resign themselves to a rate hike or “value pricing.” During a recent visit to the Express Lanes service center, 80-year-old Lawrence Frank decided not to sign up for an automated toll account.

A Corona resident, Frank said he planned only to use the toll lanes to visit his grandson in Long Beach once a week.

“That’s before they told me it was going to cost $6 round-trip, and that I’d have to keep a lot of money in the account,” Frank said. “I don’t think it’s worth it.”

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Computing the Costs of Commuting

For crush-time commuters, the cost using the 91 Express Lanes can reach $146 a month.

Friday rates for eastbound Express Lanes

(rates for other days and westbound traffic may be different)

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old rates new rates Midnight .75 .75 6 a.m. .75 $1.60 Noon $1.95 $2.35 1 p.m. $3.20 $3.65 3 p.m. $3.50 $3.75 4 p.m. $3.50 $4.25 7 p.m. $3.20 $3.75 8 p.m. $2.95 $3.35 9 p.m. $1.60 $2.10 10 p.m. $1.25 $1.60

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Source: California Private Transportation Co.