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Highway 101 express lane revenue surpassed expectations, bringing in a little over $7 million between July and September last year, while questions remain over whether the project has mitigated congestion.
“Things are working well. This toll system is working as we anticipated,” Lacy Vong, policy program manager for the San Mateo County Express Lanes Joint Powers Authority, said. “We are seeing more revenue than we had anticipated when we did the budget for 2024.”
The express lanes opened toward the beginning of last year and comprises a 22-mile stretch from the Santa Clara County line to Interstate 380. The tolls adhere to a variable pricing structure, in which costs fluctuate depending on traffic congestion.
About $20 million in revenue was projected for the entire fiscal year, although based on current estimates, the figure could be about 40% higher. Depending on the time of day, average toll rates for southbound drivers ranged between $4.26 and $4.98, with northbound rates slightly lower.
During last week’s Board of Directors meeting for the San Mateo County Transportation Authority, the agency overseeing the county’s half-cent sales taxes for transportation projects, staff noted about 3.5 million express lane trips were made during a roughly 60-day period between July and September last year. About 45% of the total tracked trips involved either violations — or those who don’t have a valid FasTrak account — or toll-free trips on account of having clean air vehicles or being a carpool user.
But for some Bay Area residents, such as Mike Swire, member of the TA Citizens Advisory Committee, the quarterly update still did not address whether the express lanes project has succeeded in reducing overall traffic along Highway 101.
“If you look at the Caltrans website for the project, the first goal is to reduce congestion in the corridor. I don’t believe this presentation lets us know if this project has been successful in reducing congestion in the corridor when compared to previous levels,” he said. “Many people believe congestion is just as bad prior to the pandemic, even though a large number of commuters continue to work from home. By comparison, Caltrain and BART ridership is a fraction of pre-pandemic levels.”
Assessing express lanes’ performance is especially timely, as efforts to add a tolling lane north of Interstate 380 are moving forward. The City/County Association of Governments of San Mateo County is expected to approve a $30 million allocation of state funds to the effort during its Thursday, Feb. 8, meeting.
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Thomas Morgan said:
If you enjoyed the column you should consider a paid subscription to help support local news.
Mike Caggiano said:
Hey Jon, so you have a pretty sharp sense of humor. I really get a kick out of it.
Thanks, and well said.
Mike Caggiano said:
Irv, really great letter explaining the realities in excellent and concise terms. Perfect! Bravo
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(4) comments
The system is called "Inducing Demand" - even Kevin Costner knew "if you build it they will come".
Let's learn from Oakland what NOT to do
If you want more MLB, you build a stadium. If you want more people using public transit - you build better systems with better service. If you want more people to walk and bike, you build better sidewalks, bike lanes, safer intersections.
AND if you want more cars, you build more streets.
The Bay Area has seen plenty of highway widenings and intersection "improvements" like this. It didn't take long before the San Mateo Bridge was congested again - it used to be congested after 4pm, now that starts at 2pm. The intersection between 92 and 880 was never not congested. Bay Bridge is always congested and often in both directions at the same time.
"Improving" Intersections like 101/85 or 280/85 did nothing to reduce congestion - it made it worse. So will anything like 92/101 or any of the improved Interchanges planned in Burlingame or Redwood City.
They are all a waste of money. These lanes cost $600M and the toll will never pay for that - the public does. And the public is never asked.
Isn't it weird that you have to lobby, do letter signings, create a 503 org, have 50 people speak at the board if you want a crosswalk in front of a school? But highway widenings just happen to appear out of nowhere with no one ever asking for them.
And as long as there is no congestion, ridership on Caltrain and SamTrans stays low, which means they can complain about some fictional "Fiscal Cliff" (while buying new headquarters).
FasTrak does not reduce traffic or congestion, it actually creates congestion since 20-25% of the lanes are not used optimally. I see it every day because I drive approximately 2,000 miles a month up and down the Peninsula. Drivers in the #2 lanes somehow feel it is okay to drive 55 MPH in the No. 2 lane because they are not technically in the No. 1 fast lane. FasTrak is a complete failure unless success is giving more money to our government to waste.
Not So Common, a correct conclusion in your last sentence. It was never about reducing traffic or congestion – it was always about nickel and diming everyone to prop up pensions and benefits and more wasteful spending. As an added bonus, we have make-work construction projects to funnel more taxpayer money into union labor. I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s more air pollution than ever before. I know I don’t mind sitting in traffic spewing more carbon…
"Economic Growth" and "Labor Contributions" are usually the reasons why these highway widenings are sold to voters. But voters really never asked for them.
And the wording: "Express lane use is above expectations" basically says "We are already too congested again. Express lanes are full."
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