Increasing 101 Congestion: Who's to blame?

The SF Comicle dove into the effects of the express toll lanes on 101 that opened in March 2023 through B'game. 

The number of drivers using the Bay Area’s newest highway express lanes is rising — but even as those drivers are enjoying speedier rides, traffic in the regular lanes appears to be slowing, a new report says.  The number of drivers using the Bay Area’s newest highway express lanes is rising — but even as those drivers are enjoying speedier rides, traffic in the regular lanes appears to be slowing, a new report says.

Those drivers, the report found, enjoy speeds of at least 45 miles per hour and travel about 11-12 mph faster than those stuck in the regular lanes.  However, the traffic in the general-use lanes slowed — at some times and in some locations — to less than 30 mph, according to the report.

Our very own former councilwoman, Emily Beach, in her new capacity as communications person for the TA was tasked with the official response

Emily Beach, a spokesperson for the San Mateo County Transportation Authority, said it’s difficult to draw conclusions about the express lanes, which started full operation in March 2023, and their effect on overall traffic.  “It’s early,” she said. “We have just over a year of data to analyze and that includes the learning period while drivers are getting used to the lanes as well as the increase in the number of people returning to the office.”

And as anyone could have expected, the system ain't perfect especially when it seems to me that no one is enforcing the rules on darkened car windows

But express-lanes officials are aware that some drivers without a sufficient number of passengers simply flip the switch on their FasTrak Flex toll tag to indicate they qualify for a free ride in the fast lane.  Transportation officials who operate express lanes across the Bay Area have identified express lane cheaters as a serious problem. They can be caught only by California Highway Patrol officers who can see how many occupants they’re claiming and compare it with what they see in the car.

In the San Mateo County lanes, roughly 25% of those declaring they have three or more in their cars could be lying, a May “toll leakage” study found.  Those scofflaws could be costing the express lanes $8,000-$12,000 a day during the morning and evening commute hours alone.

 

Let's just run the math on that.  Using just weekdays, of which there are 261 per year, that means toll fraud is somewhere between $2M and $3M and change per year.  If we throw in some busy weekends and why not if only the CHP can do anything about it and many of them are busy bailing out EssEff and Oakland local police per Gavin's direction?  Call it $3.5 million a year.  The next time you bog down in stop and go traffic trying to get from the north to the Broadway exit--which is pretty much every time you try to get from the north to B'way--and then get pummeled by the potholes on El Camino, think about the Law of Unintended Consequences.  Then think all of the new office space planned and being built on the Bayfront.

Comments

[Phinancier]

I bet there is good money working for The Man as a PR flack. There's overhead piled on top of overhead.

[Emile Beecham]

Unburdened by the passage of taxes over time, we can feel comfort in the knowledge that our left lanes are still faster than our right lanes. And for this we should feel proud and unburdened. As we look forward to more studies, unburdened by the past studies, we can turn the page on the past studies and find hope in the passage of time.

[Timothy]

You already have the cameras, so building an AI system to detect with reasonable accuracy shouldn't be too challenging. Perhaps it's time to ask Elon to step in and address it.