91 Freeway’s Toll Lane Rates Are Going Up

A one-way, rush-hour commute on the Riverside Freeway’s Express Lanes will cost drivers as much as $8.50 after toll increases go into effect Monday.

Motorists already burdened by the high price of gas and the often snarled traffic on the 91 Freeway groaned Tuesday as they learned about the increases, which could cost weekday round-trip users of the toll lanes an extra $30 a month.

The increase -- 75 cents -- applies to “super-peak” hours, roughly 5 to 9 a.m. westbound and 2 to 7 p.m. eastbound.

“What it means is that you have to cut back in other areas. Already we don’t go out to lunch. Maybe we won’t go out to dinner because the $20 we’d spend at McDonald’s we have to spend on tolls,” said Mary Monise, a human resources administrator who commutes from Corona to Santa Ana every day with her husband, who works in Santa Ana as a mechanic.

Even before the increase, the Express Lanes, which run along the middle of the freeway, were pricey. It cost $7.75 to travel the entire 10-mile stretch through Orange County heading to Riverside County.

As brake lights illuminated the roadways during rush hour Tuesday, many stopping for gas at a Chevron station at the Van Buren Boulevard exit in Riverside commented on the hike.

“It’s sad we’re already consumed” by the gas prices, said Tanya Harper, an Anaheim homemaker. “It’s just terrible. They are just squeezing the working class. It’s not going to be the last increase.”

Rates go up automatically by 75 cents when more than 3,200 vehicles use the lanes in a one-hour period for at least six of 12 consecutive weeks. The policy is meant to keep the lanes moving by weeding out commuters unwilling to pay more. Rates could go down again if traffic flow shrinks substantially as a result.

Rates vary depending on the hour and direction traveled. The most expensive eastbound times -- 4 to 6 p.m. Thursday and 3 to 5 p.m. Friday -- will cost $8.50. The morning rush-hour westbound tolls are roughly half that.

The tolls were last raised in May, an indicator of the rapidly increasing congestion between Orange and Riverside counties, transportation officials said.

“Riverside has the available housing. Orange County has the jobs that fuel the growth in the traffic,” said spokesman Ted Nguyen of the Orange County Transportation Authority.

When the Express Lanes opened 10 years ago, the maximum toll was $2.50 one way. Peter Samuel, editor of Tollroads.com, an industry website, said he knows “of no toll road that costs more.” The second most expensive toll road he knows of -- lanes on Interstate 15 in San Diego -- costs about $4 to traverse 8.5 miles. Drivers crossing Virginia’s Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel pay $12, but they travel 20 miles for that price, he said.

The pattern of increases in Orange County shows “there are enough people willing to pay even more,” he said. It also indicates a desperate need for more roadway, he said.

Corona resident Lisa Rudberg, a nurse in Riverside, said that when she wanted to go to Orange County for entertainment, she’d splurge. Originally from upstate New York, she said she couldn’t get used to Southern California congestion: “I’d rather pay the toll than sit in traffic.”