Golden Gate Bridge plans to collect all tolls electronically by September 2012

San Francisco’s world-famous Golden Gate Bridge looks much like this right now, but come September 2012 the last of those yellow “cash” signs are scheduled to wink out. That’s because the bridge’s board of directors voted 13-2 to approve a $2.9 million plan that will replace the bridge’s 30 full-time human tolltakers with a fully electronic system. Don’t say you didn’t see this coming, folks. The existing FasTrak subscription RFID transponder system will continue to work, and there will be a camera-based backup as well — if you pass through the bridge without a FasTrak pass, bridge-mounted cameras will take a picture of your license plate and you’ll get a $6 bill in the mail. Planners estimate the move will save about $19.2 million by the year 2020 in salaries and benefits that would otherwise go to the friendly meatbags who work there now, and should things stay on track the revamped system will debut in February of next year. Golden Gate Bridge plans to collect all tolls electronically by September 2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 30 Jan 2011 19:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

Posted by on January 30, 2011. Filed under News, Tech. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry