Bay Bridge Congestion-Pricing Project: Lessons Learned to Date

Abstract

The San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge, connecting San Francisco and the East Bay, is one of the most heavily traveled corridors in the nation. In an effort to address traffic congestion in this corridor, the Bay Area Congestion Pricing Task Force—a group of business, environment, public interest, and government organizations—has been examining the viability of variable tolls on the Bay Bridge. Tolls would be higher during peak commute hours when demand is highest and lower in off-peak hours when the bridge has excess capacity. This supply-and-demand-based concept is known as congestion pricing. The federally sponsored planning phase of the Bay Bridge congestion-pricing demonstration program commenced in the fall of 1993. Its purpose was to determine the most feasible alternatives for reducing congestion on the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge through implementing a congestion-pricing program. The process by which the task force developed a congestion-pricing proposal for the Bay Bridge is described, as are the lessons that have been learned along the way.