FasTrak

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FasTrak is the electronic toll collection (ETC) system used in the state of California in the United States. The system is used statewide on all of the toll roads and bridges along the California Freeway and Expressway System.

As with other ETC systems, FasTrak is designed to eliminate the need for cars to stop to pay at toll booths, thus decreasing the traffic traditionally associated with toll roads. Its use of technology to improve transit is in line with the U.S. Department of Transportation's Intelligent Transportation Systems initiative.

Functionality

FasTrak uses RFID technology to read data from a transponder placed in a vehicle (usually mounted by velcro strips to the windshield) moving at speeds that may exceed 70 mph. The RFID transponder in each vehicle is associated with a prepaid debit account; each time the vehicle passes underneath a toll collection site, the account is debited to pay the toll. If a vehicle does not have a transponder, the system uses automatic number plate recognition to take photos of the vehicle and its license plate for processing.

Anybody with a FasTrak transponder can use it to pay tolls on any California toll road or bridge using the system. But people are encouraged to open their accounts with the local agency in charge of the toll facility that they use the most. Different agencies may offer different discounts and incentives, and people may be charged a fee if the majority of their FasTrak use occurs elsewhere.

History

As the first ETC system in North America was installed on the Dallas North Tollway in 1989, many California toll facilities started to express interest in the technology. Because the state's toll roads and bridges are run by different government agencies, there was the possibility that a number of different incompatible ETC systems would be institued throughout California. Therefore, the California State Legislature passed Senate Bill 1523 in 1990, requiring Caltrans, the state's Department of Transportation, to develop a statewide technical specification which all systems would be required to meet. As a result, California was the first in the nation to require all of its toll bridges and roads to use the same ETC system.

When the Foothill Toll Road in Orange County opened in 1993, it became the first California toll facility to use an ETC system. Transportation Corridor Agencies (TCA), the local agency in charge of the toll road, named the system "FasTrak". To this day, TCA still holds the trademark to the "FasTrak" name and logo.

When TCA first introduced the FasTrak system, the electronic transponders consisted of a gadget about the size of a Walkman in which a smart card was inserted into it. However, the smart cards became unpopular with both tollway officials and users because they costed more, offered little advantage, and customers were charged with a $10 annual fee. By the time that the 91 Express Lanes opened in 1995, the FasTrak transponders were redesigned to be the size of a coaster that could be mounted by velcro strips to the windshield.

TCA later deployed the FasTrak system to the two other toll roads they administer as soon as they opened: the San Joaquin Hills Toll Road in 1996 and the Eastern Toll Road in 1998. Also in 1998, the system was then deployed on the high-occupancy toll (HOT) lanes along Interstate 15 in San Diego.

However, the system had to be modified so that it could be used on California's toll bridges. After a test run on the Carquinez Bridge in 1996, it had accuracy problems in dealing with the 18 different toll classifications for different kinds of trucks. After the changes were made and another test run, the Carquinez Bridge became the first California toll bridge to use FasTrak in 1997. However, bureaucratic inaction, technical troubles, and financial mismanagement delayed the deployment of the system to the other six state-run toll bridges in the San Francisco Bay Area until October 2000. Meanwhile, the Golden Gate Bridge, run by the independent Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District, installed their system a few months earlier in July of that year. The FasTrak system was also briefly used on the state-owned San Diego-Coronado Bridge until tolls were discontinued on that structure in 2002.

When the South Bay Expressway, a new toll road in San Diego County, opens in 2007, drivers will also be able to pay toll using FasTrak. The system would also be deployed on the proposed HOT lanes along Interstate 680 between Alameda and Santa Clara counties.

Toll facilities that currently use FasTrak

Bridges

• Antioch Bridge
• Benicia-Martinez Bridge
• Carquinez Bridge
• Dumbarton Bridge
• Golden Gate Bridge
• Richmond-San Rafael Bridge
• San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge
• San Mateo-Hayward Bridge

• 91 Express Lanes
• Interstate 15, San Diego

Toll Roads

• Eastern Toll Road
• Foothill Toll Road
• San Joaquin Hills Toll Road
• South Bay Expressway (scheduled to open in 2007)

See also

• 5-1-1, 511.org - San Francisco Bay Area transit information
• California Department of Transportation
• Electronic toll collection

References

External links

• [Bay Area FasTrak System]
• [Interstate 15 Express Lanes]
• [91 Express Lanes]
• [Transportation Corridor Agencies] -- administers the Orange County toll roads.
• [South Bay Expressway]
• [I-680 Smart Lane] -- the proposed I-680 HOT lanes

 

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