91 Express Lanes users to get new sticker transponders, and for many, a savings

The relief provided to drivers who travel on the 91 Express Lanes to avoid traffic should soon extend to their wallets.

Beginning in 2019, the Orange County Transportation Authority and Riverside County Transportation Commission, which jointly operate the toll lanes, will restructure the account plans offered as they phase out the hard-case FasTrack transponders currently issued to customers in favor of stickers.

The current transponders require batteries and cost around $13 compared to the stickers, which run less than $1 each. The stickers are already in use in Colorado, Washington and Utah.

The Orange County Transportation Authority is using the change over as an opportunity to make its first adjustments in more than 20 years to the payment plans available – Riverside adopted the same plans in 2011.

“We wanted to simplify and make our plans more competitive (and) increase the number of transponders in circulation while maintaining the financial integrity of the 91 Express Lanes,” Kirk Avila, general manager of the Orange County Transportation Authority’s Express Lanes Programs, said at a meeting this week of the governing board, which approved the changes.

As of Tuesday, there were 210,000 transponders tied to 140,000 Express Lane accounts, Avila said. Both agencies will move from charging customers a per-transponder fee to one fee per account. The most savings will be for accounts with multiple transponders.

Some of the changes to the Express Lanes plans are:

• The Convenience Plan will eliminate a one-time $75 fee for each transponder listed on an account to a one-time fee of $100 for each account for new customers.
• The monthly fee for the Standard Plan – the most popular – will be reduced from a $7 minimum for each transponder associated with an account to $2 per account. As an incentive, customers enrolled in the plan will receive a $1 discount on all tolled trips after 30 trips. The discount is capped at $50. Travel on the Orange County and the Riverside County segments of the 91 count as two trips.
• The Express Club Plan will be eliminated. Account holders will be asked to switch to one of the remaining plans.
• Other changes include the elimination of a $35-$50 deposit for each transponder for customers who open a new account in cash.

All account holders will be grandfathered into their plans.

Existing customers will begin receiving sticker transponders for every vehicle listed on their account in February at no cost. New customers after Jan. 1 will be charged $5 for a sticker transponder or $15 for a switchable transponder that lets drivers indicate how many people are in the vehicle so they can use HOV lanes on other roadways.

Orange County Transportation Authority board chair Lisa Bartlett said the new sticker option may encourage drivers to use the Express Lanes more often.

“If they’ve got the sticker right on their windshield and every vehicle in their family has got one, I think they’re going to be more inclined, if they hit a bump in traffic, ‘Oh I’ve got the sticker. I’ll just take the Express Lanes,’” she said.

Customers who choose to stick with their current transponders will have until 2024 to make the switch to a new one.

The agencies are expecting to take an initial loss with the changes to the account plants.

Express Lanes account fees generate $2.4 million for the Orange County Transportation Authority annually, which is expected to be reduced to $1.17 million the first year, Avila said. The losses should be helped by $390,000 in annual cost-savings the first year from the cheaper sticker transponders and be fully offset with 15 years, according to a staff report.

A marketing campaign is planned in the fall to alert customers of the changes.