Toll-taker Dennis Tan motions traffic forward at the Golden Gate Bridge on Friday. Bridge officials are considering moving to all-electronic toll collection on the span, which could cost workers like Tan their jobs. (IJ photo/Frankie Frost)
TOLL-TAKERS at the Golden Gate Bridge are an endangered species.

The bridge district's Board of Directors voted Friday to move forward with a study that could lead to making all tolls electronic on the span, a move that would cost 35 toll-takers their jobs.

Golden Gate Bridge officials are considering eliminating toll-takers, among other steps, to help bail the district out of a $132 million budget shortfall over the next five years.

"If this happens, we hope to find other jobs within the district," said Linda Green, who has been a toll-taker for 17 years. "We will miss our jobs. We have regulars who come by to say 'hi,' even with FasTrak. It would be sad."

Toll collectors, a staple of the bridge since it opened in 1937, appear ready to be phased out if the numbers add up for the district.

On Friday, the board approved $668,000 worth of studies to convert the span to all-electronic tolls. A final decision to move forward won't come for at least six months after studies are completed.

"We need to find out if we did this, what would it look like," said Celia Kupersmith, the bridge district's general manager. "It's a big decision and we need to figure out how it would work. Is this really something we want to do?"

Elsewhere in the U.S. and overseas, cashless tolling systems use video cameras like those already installed on the Golden Gate to capture the license plates of toll violators. But drivers without transponders aren't tagged as violators - they're

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simply mailed a bill for the toll.

The bridge district has already reduced the number of toll-takers as traffic diminished by 3 percent in the past year.

If the plan moves forward, by 2013 all tolls on the span would be taken electronically. The district would save roughly $16 million over 10 years in salaries and benefits with the change. A toll-taker's base salary starts at $48,672 and tops out at $54,080.

"Manual toll collection will be a novelty in 10 to 15 years," said Kary Witt,

Toll-taker Dennis Tan leaves the booth of lane one at the Golden Gate Bridge on Friday. The bridge board is considering phasing out toll-takers. (IJ photo/Frankie Frost)
bridge manager. "It is the way the industry is going."

Bridge district officials said their deficit has been caused by the economic recession that has resulted in fewer drivers and tolls and state funding cuts to its transit system as well as the $75 million cost it incurred when it agreed to help with the $1 billion Doyle Drive rebuild.

Last October the board approved a 33-step plan to keep the district in the black, to be phased in over the next four years, including eliminating toll-takers.

Other Bay Area bridges operated by Caltrans are not looking at eliminating similar positions, officials said.

"Our policy is to have cash-paying availability to drivers and to have it convenient at all times," said Randy Rentschler, a spokesman for the Bay Area Toll Authority, which works with Caltrans on toll issues. "That is likely to continue."

But the Golden Gate Bridge, which is not run by Caltrans, is heading toward the all-electronic tolls.

"This takes us into the 21st century and it is happening all over, including Europe; there is no reason why it can't happen here," said Dietrich Stroeh, bridge board member from Novato.

Contact Mark Prado via e-mail at mprado@marinij.com