The Richmond-San Rafael Bridge has not used its toll booths since going all FasTrak in 2020, and those booths are now being ripped out, in a process that is also scheduled for the SF Bay Bridge.

It’s been a full five years since human toll-takers have worked in the toll plazas on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, and the toll-paying has been handled exclusively by FasTrak (or license plate tolling). And yet five years later, the toll booths are still there. Though that’s starting to change, as KRON4 reports that work has begun to tear the toll booths off the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, as the bridge transitions to a faster new system called Open Road Tolling (ORT), in which, theoretically, you will not even have to slow down to pay your toll.  

“ORT is the future for all toll bridge plazas in the Bay Area — and the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge will be the first to see the transition to ORT,” the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) that oversees the six major state-run Bay Area bridges said in a statement to KRON4.

We mention the MTC oversees operations of six bridges, and that happens to also include the San Francisco Bay Bridge. They also run the Antioch Bridge, Benicia-Martinez Bridge, Carquinez Bridge, Dumbarton Bridge, and San Mateo Bridge. And all six of those are eventually getting their toll booths taken out for smoother traffic flow.

First, crews plan to repaint the stripes on the bridge’s interstate I-580 so that drivers do not have to be sequestered into toll booth lanes. Then they will install some new overhead roofing, equipped with FasTrak readers that can ping your FasTrak even when you are driving at highway speeds.

As we mentioned, this change is coming to all of the state-owned bridges over the next couple years. (The Golden Gate Bridge is operated independently of the state.) The big one is the Bay Bridge, which is scheduled to have its toll booths taken out in 2028. Ditto for the Benicia-Martinez Bridge, the San Mateo Bridge, and Dumbarton Bridge. The Antioch Bridge and Carquinez Bridge are slated to get their toll booths removed a little earlier, in 2027.

But that may not be the biggest news for Bay Area bridge commuters. As the Chronicle points out, the tolls on all these state-run bridges is going up by 50 cents on January 1, 2026, and the price will rise to $8.50. There will, however, be no January 1 toll increase on the Golden Gate Bridge (not this year, at least).

Related: New Bike and Pedestrian Lane Opens on Richmond-San Rafael Bridge [SFist]

Image: Basil D Soufi via Wikimedia Commons