Good To Go! is the electronic toll collection system used by the Washington State Department of Transportation on all current and future toll projects in the state of Washington. Good To Go! customers prepay their tolls into an account, the tolls are then electronically deducted as the customer passes through an electronic toll collection location. The system debuted in July 2007 on the new Tacoma Narrows Bridge and is a part of the high-occupancy toll (HOT) lanes on State Route 167, which opened in the spring of 2008. All-electronic tolling will begin on the SR 520 Bridge on December 29th, 2011. [1] The Good To Go! system is similar to other electronic tolling technology already in place around the country such as FasTrak in California and E-ZPass in the eastern United States.
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Drivers may set up a pre-paid Good To Go! account, with a pre-paid balance of $30, by purchasing and activating a Good To Go! Pass that mounts in the vehicle windshield. Drivers have five options for Good To Go! passes. Currently Good To Go! is available for use on the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, the SR 167 HOT lanes and on the SR 520 Bridge. When using the Tacoma Narrows Bridge with Good To Go!, the price for a passenger car $2.75; if paying with cash or a credit card, the toll for a passenger car is $4.00. Tolls on SR 167 are variable and must be paid by using Good To Go!. Tolls on the SR 520 bridge are variable depending on time of day.
Electronic Transaction Consultants Corp. (ETCC) operates the Good To Go! statewide customer service center. TransCore operates toll booth and camera equipment on the Tacoma Narrows Bridge and Telvent manages the toll collection system on the SR 520 Bridge.
The toll collection system in place for the Tacoma Narrows Bridge has standard toll booth collection lanes as well as three electronic toll lanes that allow for tolls to be deducted from a prepaid account at reduced cost. One of these lanes is for High Occupancy Vehicles only and vehicles in this lane must have a Good To Go! account when crossing the toll plaza through the electronic toll lanes.
Every car that travels through the Good To Go! electronic toll lanes is automatically photographed. If a vehicle passes through the electronic toll lanes without a transponder or Good To Go! account, three times the toll amount plus a $40 violation will be charged to the registered owner of the vehicle via the license plate information per the Washington State Department of Licensing. In the case of a malfunctioning transponder for a Good To Go! account holder, the toll charge will be posted to the account associated with that license plate number.
On December 29th 2011, tolling started on the SR 520 floating bridge. The revenue generated from the tolls will help pay for the replacement bridge. All tolling will be done automatically with no tollbooths. Tolling for people without Good to Go passes will be done by license plates. [2]. G2G allows users to purchase RFID "passes" for their vehicles and charges a fee to those without the RFID chips, ostensibly for license plate processing and not as an incentive to use the privacy-reducing RFID technology.
This four-year pilot project on SR 167 is testing a new congestion management tool in Washington, allowing solo drivers to pay an electronic toll for use of the carpool lanes, without having to stop.
Toll rates fluctuate with the level of congestion to ensure that traffic in the HOT lane flows at least 45 mph, even when the regular lanes are congested.
The project launched in May 2008. A single HOT lane in each direction runs along nine miles of State Route 167 between Renton and Auburn in King County. Carpools of two people or more, transit, vanpools and motorcycles may still use the HOT as a regular HOV lane free of the HOT toll. If vehicles with the Good to Go Pass have two or more occupants, the pass must be covered up by a shield or their account will be deducted for the toll.