All-Electronic Tolling on the Iconic Golden Gate Bridge

When San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge completed its transition to All-Electronic Tolling (AET) in March 2013, one of the most important challenges was to minimize any negative effects for the people who’d been the human face of the manual tolling operation.

The bridge had amassed a 76-year tolling history, and it employed 29 full-time and four part-time collectors on the day the final AET conversion was announced. In this SmartMove success story, Bridge Manager Kary Witt described the “soft landing” severance package and how they worked and communicated closely to ease the transition for those employees.

It’s really clear to me that conversion to all-electronic toll collection is not a technical issue,” Witt said. “The technology has matured to the point where it’s nearly off the shelf, so at this point conversion to AET is a people challenge. That’s easy to overlook, but perhaps most important in this day of technology.”

For the full collection of SmartMove success stories, visit IBTTA’s Moving America Forward page.