Say goodbye to booths when open road tolling arrives at bridges

QI work near the Thornton Avenue exit on Highway 84 and carpool over the Dumbarton Bridge back to the peninsula. Currently, the carpool discount is only available to cars in the designated HOV lane, inaccessible from the Thornton/Paseo Padre onramp or the previous onramp at Newark/ Ardenwood. Is there any plan to open up the toll discount to other lanes for others who might also have this problem? — Tom Purcell

AUnder the current tolling configuration, there's no plan to expand the discount to other lanes. When open road tolling is implemented in 2026, the tolling point will be farther west, and drivers merging from that on-ramp will have a longer distance to safely access the HOV lane across the roadway. Under open road tolling, booths will be removed from the seven state-owned toll bridges. Toll readers on tall gantries will process tolls electronically.

QInterstate 980 could stay a major vehicle route AND become a series of tunnels connected by parks above the interstate. Start by building a coalition of interested parties, including private citizens/city/ county/state/federal representatives to create a plan. The tunnel parks would connect the neighborhoods that have been disrupted by 980. Designers, engineers and architects can come up with some really wonderful ideas that many people could benefit from, while serving the city of Oakland as an integrated community.

The tunnel parks could include urban food gardens, native vegetation/wild habitat (it's not only humans who are becoming homeless and food insecure) and adjacent affordable housing, as well. This would give residents much-needed open, green breathing space/ oxygen, views of the hills, recreational opportunities and respite from the ills of modern cities. This could reduce violence, and allow people to move through Oakland more easily, without encountering dangerous vehicles.

A This could be among the possibilities Caltrans considers when it reviews next steps. Stay tuned.

QI know express lane rules have been discussed as they affect motorcycles and two-seat sports cars, but what about pickups with a cab that have jump seats in the back which are only good for a car seat, at best. I think of them as two-seat vehicles.

I drive a 2007 Tacoma and only an adult human pretzel could ride back there. Can I use the 3+ setting, as the vehicle is really maxed out with two people? — David Stone

AAs John-the-MTCman describes it, set the Flex tag setting for your vehicle to the actual number of occupants, or “If driving solo, set it to 1; if driving with a buddy riding shotgun, set it to 2; if you squeeze someone into the rear seat, set it to 3+.”