The Board of Directors of the Foothill/Eastern Transportation Corridor Agency (F/ETCA) elected Craig Young, a Yorba Linda councilman, to serve as Chair of the 15-member Joint Powers Authority for a third term in June. Under Chair Young’s leadership, the Agency will focus on customer service and toll road improvements.
The 133, 241 and 261 Toll Roads provide vital links between Rancho Santa Margarita, Irvine and the Orange and Riverside county border, serving residents and businesses of Yorba Linda, Anaheim, Orange, Tustin, Irvine, Ladera Ranch, Lake Forest, Coto de Caza, and Rancho Santa Margarita. The 133, 241 and 261 Toll Roads carry nearly 200,000 trips each weekday and tolls are collected electronically with FasTrak® ExpressAccount® or with One-Time-Toll online payments. Toll revenue is primarily used to pay for bonds issued to construct The Toll Roads.
In Fiscal Year (FY) 2016, which ended June 30, F/ETCA collected $200.3 million and recorded 63,375,504 million transactions on the 36-mile toll system; an increase of 8.5 percent over the previous year.
In FY17, the F/ETCA Board of Directors will focus on:
- 241/91 Express Connector – F/ETCA in coordination with Caltrans, is proposing to add a direct connector from the 241 Toll Road to 91 Freeway Express Lanes. The direct, median-to-median tolled connector would reduce traffic congestion, enhance safety by reducing weaving across the lanes and improve access to toll lanes in Orange and Riverside Counties. A draft environmental document will be released in November for a 60-day public circulation period.
- South Orange County Transportation Mobility – In FY17, F/ETCA, will continue to collaborate with Caltrans, the Orange County Transportation Authority, regional transportation partners, elected leaders and community stakeholders to work toward solving regional mobility in Southern California. A series of community forums will be held to address transportation mobility concerns and collect and evaluate public ideas on how to solve the region’s major traffic problems.
- Enhance Customer Experience – The Toll Roads’ website and mobile app were recently revamped to enhance online toll payments and improve the user’s online experience. In FY17, the process to pay tolls will be simplified and the mobile app will incorporate Apple’s Touch ID feature allowing customers easy access to their account and payments with fingerprint recognition technology. Additionally, F/ETCA recently partnered with major rental car companies to streamline toll payment for rental car drivers and tourists by enabling tolls to be charged directly through the driver’s rental car agreement when they drive The Toll Roads. To date, half a million tolls have been collected through this program.
The Foothill/Eastern Transportation Corridor Agency is determined to serve our customers and find the right solution for the mobility challenges facing Orange County residents and commuters,” said F/ETCA Chairman Craig Young. “Our ground-up outreach strategy for solving the region’s traffic problems strengthens our Agencies’ partnerships with stakeholders in a way that addresses mobility challenges and minimizes environmental impacts.”
The Foothill/Eastern Transportation Corridor, together with its sister agency the San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor, make up the Transportation Corridor Agencies (TCA). The TCA are two joint powers authorities formed by the California legislature in 1986 to plan, finance, construct and operate Orange County’s 67-mile public toll road system. Fifty-one miles of the system are complete, including the 73, 133, 241 and 261 Toll Roads. TCA continues to meet the region’s growing need for congestion-free transportation alternatives.
