email : Webview : New Bridge Toll Fine & Fee Relief for Bay Area Drivers!

When Kelly lost her job, she turned to the gig economy to make ends meet and began driving for ride-share companies. But she couldn’t keep up with her toll payments.

Each time she crossed the bridge, her $7 toll charge would balloon to $70: $25 for a missed payment and an additional $45 late fee when the toll went unpaid. That brings the total penalty to $70 for each toll, 10 times the original $7 toll cost. She now owes thousands of dollars in penalties. She is willing to pay the tolls she owes, but can’t afford the extreme penalties.

Unfortunately, Kelly’s experience is not uncommon. In 2019, more than 5 million instances of unpaid tolls resulted in fines and fees, according to “Bridging the Gap”, a new report from SPUR. SPUR’s research made clear that these toll fines and fees are disproportionately levied on low-income communities of color like Hunter’s Point in San Francisco, Richmond, and West Oakland.

Fortunately, there is now real relief for people like Kelly. In partnership with SPUR and many community advocates, The Financial Justice Project successfully advocated for significant relief from toll fines and fees for the Bay Area’s drivers.

On December 1, 2021, MTC reduced fines and fees by 80% on all unpaid bridge tolls received since January 1, 2021, which can potentially save drivers thousands of dollars:

Additionally, MTC will discount fees for FasTrak customers who use cash beginning in Spring 2022, which will bring significant relief to drivers who pay their tolls with cash.

We applaud the steps the MTC has taken to address the adverse, disproportionate impacts of toll fines and fees. And we thank our partners at All of Us Or None, ACLU of Northern California, GLIDE, Insight Center for Community and Economic Development, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, The San Francisco Foundation, Taxpayers for Public Safety, and Young Women’s Freedom Center for their advocacy and work to uplift the experiences of drivers who have been impacted by toll fines and fees.

There is still more work to do. While the MTC’s reforms are meaningful, The Financial Justice Project and our partners have called on the MTC to implement further reforms like forgiving past fines and fees, ending the use of DMV holds, and notifying people of unpaid fines and fees by text message and email.

We look forward to continuing to work with the MTC and our partners to advance Financial Justice!

Yours in Financial Justice,

Anne, Michelle, and Shawn

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