The River Crossing Fee is a toll that people who don't live in Chicago pay to drive across the city's bridges over the Chicago River: $10 at peak times and $3.50 off-peak. Chicago residents are not charged. The toll brings in about $230 million to $285 million a year. Of that, 20% restores Chicago's bridges and the rest rebuilds our neighborhoods.
← ALL POLICIES
PART OF THE NEW BURNHAM PLAN
DESIGN
River Crossing Fee
Drivers who don't live in Chicago pay a toll to cross the Chicago River, and Chicago residents are not charged. The money restores our bridges and rebuilds our neighborhoods.
The toll is paid by drivers who come in from outside the city and use our streets all day. It's $10 at rush hour and $3.50 at other times.
Every weekday a lot of people drive into Chicago over bridges Chicago taxpayers built and maintain, use our streets all day, and go home. Today they pay nothing for that, and Chicago taxpayers cover the cost.
Under my plan, Chicago residents are never charged to cross, at any hour, and there's nothing to sign up for. The city sticker already on your windshield is how the toll reader knows you live here. Drivers from outside Chicago pay a toll at the river bridges: $10 for a car at peak times and $3.50 off-peak. Heavier trucks pay more because they do more damage to the road, and Chicago businesses' trucks pay nothing off-peak.
It raises $230 million to $285 million a year. A fifth of the money restores Chicago's river bridges, from the steel and the machinery to the bridgehouses. The rest rebuilds neighborhoods, starting with each neighborhood's new plaza and main street (the frunchrooms). People who have driven through these neighborhoods for decades help pay to fix them.
Why the bridges? Illinois law gives cities the power to build, run and toll their own river bridges. It's the law Chicago used to build the Skyway. So this isn't a congestion charge, a fee for driving into a crowded area. It's a fee for using bridges Chicago owns.
Most of this plan is paid for by Chicago property owners, by the workers and employers who share the payroll contribution for Chicago Family Care for All, the plan's childcare and paid leave program, and by the vehicles registered here. This one asks the people who use our streets without living here to chip in.
WHAT IT WON'T DO
It doesn't charge Chicagoans. If your car has a Chicago city sticker, you cross free at any hour, with no pass to buy.
It isn't a congestion charge. It's a fee for using bridges Chicago owns, under the same state law as the Skyway.
It doesn't price out working people from the suburbs. Off-peak is $3.50, and households earning under $50,000 a year get half off their first ten trips each month.
It doesn't disappear into City Hall. The money goes into its own fund with independent oversight: 20% to restoring the bridges, the rest to neighborhood plazas and main streets.
It doesn't borrow against money it hasn't collected. There are no bonds at the start. Borrowing is allowed only from Year 4 at the earliest, against money already being collected, and never to cover a shortfall.
How it connects
Nothing in this plan works alone. These are the questions people ask next, and the policies that answer them.
What does the money build? After a fifth goes to the bridges, the rest builds each neighborhood's own downtown under Complete Neighborhoods, called a frunchroom, with a free public plaza, real trees, lighting and a main street you can walk.
Complete Neighborhoods: The Frunchroom →
Which bridges get fixed? Paved Paradise rebuilds each street once, from the pipes up, on a published schedule.
Paved Paradise →
What if the tolls come in low? The Chicago Remodel Fund, a voter-approved line on the property tax, covers the rest of the neighborhood rebuild.
Chicago Remodel Fund →
Won't traffic just move to other streets? Yellow Brick Road corridors are streets where people walking and biking come first and cars can't cut through. The Spine Line is a new subway under Western Avenue and 95th Street with a transfer to every L line.
Yellow Brick Road Corridors →
Spine Line →
Why do trucks pay more? The Chicago Mobility Fund uses the same idea for the city vehicle sticker: heavier vehicles do more damage to the road, so they pay more.
Chicago Mobility Fund →
FISCAL IMPACT
Revenue Generating
RENOVATION STEP
Design
SHOW THE FULL POLICY DETAILS
01
Where it ranks
HOW WE DELIVER IT · PAY FOR IT
#2 of 6
PAY FOR IT
75 / 100
Enables
Scale
Long-term
PROVEN It is a toll that drivers who don't live in Chicago pay to cross the city's bridges over the Chicago River: $10 at peak times and $3.50 off-peak. It raises $230–285 million a year. It provides the first money for building the frunchrooms (each neighborhood's own downtown) and restoring the river bridges, and it gives Chicago Ride, a rideshare service that pays its drivers the Dignity Wage, its start-up money. It uses the same state toll bridge law the city used to build the Chicago Skyway. Chicago residents are not charged.
See all the priorities
How I set them
02
How it works
Residents cross free, any time
The River Crossing Fee is a toll that people who don't live in Chicago pay to drive across the city's bridges over the Chicago River. If your car has a Chicago city sticker registered to a Chicago address, you pay nothing at any hour. The sticker is scanned at the bridge approach, so residents don't need a camera check or a separate pass to prove where they live. Commercial vehicles register a transponder, an electronic tag the bridge readers detect.
Built on the Skyway's law
Illinois law gives every city the power to build, run and maintain its own river bridges and charge tolls to use them. It's the law Chicago used to build the Skyway, which opened in 1958 as a 7.8-mile toll bridge. So this is a fee for using bridges Chicago owns, passed by the City Council. It is not a congestion charge.
Non-resident cars
A passenger vehicle that isn't registered in Chicago pays $10 at peak times and $3.50 off-peak.
Trucks pay by axles
Chicago commercial vehicles with 2 or 3 axles pay $5 at peak and nothing off-peak; those with 4 or more axles pay $10 at peak and nothing off-peak. Non-resident commercial vehicles with 2 or 3 axles pay $15 at peak and $4 off-peak; those with 4 or more axles pay $25 at peak and $6 off-peak. Heavier vehicles do more damage to the road, so they pay more.
Low-income discount
Households earning under $50,000 get 50% off their first 10 trips each month. People enroll through the city's existing system for low-income programs, and the city verifies income through its own systems.
20% restores the bridges
If the fee brings in $257 million a year, the middle of its estimated range, about $51 million a year goes to restoring the river bridges. Across the full range, the bridge share is $46-57 million a year. The money is set aside from the start, and the steel, the machinery and the bridgehouses come first. That is enough for the city to pay the full cost of roughly one major rehabilitation of a movable bridge each year. If the money is used as the city's share of projects the federal government helps fund, it can support up to about $250 million a year of bridge work. The bridge plan (bridge ratings, a regular schedule of preventive maintenance and the order of the work) is part of Paved Paradise, the plan to rebuild each street once from the pipes up. The Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) maintains 243 bridges, including 36 movable bridges.
About 80% rebuilds neighborhoods
The rest, about $206 million a year at the midpoint ($184-228 million across the range), is the main source of construction money for the frunchrooms (Chicago slang for the front room): each neighborhood's new plaza and main street. The Chicago Remodel Fund, the voter-approved neighborhood fund on the property tax, covers any gap.
Start-up money for Chicago Ride
A one-time $15-20 million from the first year's revenue provides start-up money for Chicago Ride, the city-run rideshare service. It is released only after a $0.50-a-trip surcharge on Uber and Lyft passes. After that, Chicago Ride runs on fares, the surcharge and its share of the Chicago Mobility Fund (the city's road maintenance fund, paid for by vehicle stickers) for fleet maintenance.
What it doesn't pay for
The fee doesn't pay for road maintenance or the CTA operating subsidy; both were removed from its uses in June 2026. Road maintenance is paid for by the Chicago Mobility Fund, the city's road fund paid for by vehicle stickers priced by weight, as part of the Paved Paradise plan. The CTA subsidy stays in the CTA's budget. Bridge work beyond the fee's 20% share stays in the Chicago Department of Transportation's budget for long-term construction (its capital budget).
Its own fund
Revenue goes into its own account, the River Crossing Fee Revenue Fund, overseen by an independent board.
Borrowing only after it's proven
The city issues no bonds at the start. From Year 4 at the earliest, the city may borrow against the money the fee has proven it collects, to build frunchrooms faster. It never borrows to cover a gap.
03
What it costs
Passenger vehicles
~$190-230M a year
Commercial vehicles
~$40-55M a year
First year (about half a year of operation)
~$115-142M
Bridge restoration (20%)
$46-57M a year (~$51M at the midpoint)
Building frunchrooms (about 80%)
$184-228M a year (~$206M at the midpoint)
Start-up money for Chicago Ride (one-time, Year 1)
$15-20M
Net revenue a year at full operation
$230-285M (midpoint ~$257M)
These are the policy's own estimates, stated as net revenue. The city won't borrow against the fee until Year 4, and then only against money the fee has proven it collects.
04
What it takes to make it happen
CITY COUNCIL
Pass the River Crossing Fee ordinance with the rates and the low-income discount, and pass the $0.50-a-trip Uber and Lyft surcharge that the start-up money for Chicago Ride depends on.
MAYOR AND CITY DEPARTMENTS
Buy and install the electronic tolling and the bridge-approach readers, open low-income enrollment, set up the revenue fund and its oversight board, and set aside the 20% bridge share from the start.
CITY CLERK
The Clerk's office runs the city sticker program. Its sticker records have to be connected to the bridge readers.
SPRINGFIELD
No new state law is planned. The fee rests on the state's toll bridge law, the law the Skyway was built under, and on Chicago's home-rule power. Crossings improved with federal highway money follow federal toll rules. I expect a court challenge, and the fee is designed to hold up in court: every non-resident pays the same charge, wherever they come from.
WASHINGTON
Federal rules generally bar tolls on roads improved with federal highway money unless an exemption is granted. New York needed Federal Highway Administration approval for that reason. Each tolled crossing has to be checked.
VOTERS
No referendum is needed.
05
Timeline
DAY ONE
The ordinance is introduced. The city starts buying the tolling system, connects the city sticker records to the bridge readers, opens low-income enrollment, and introduces the Uber and Lyft surcharge that funds Chicago Ride.
YEAR 1
The target is to be collecting for about half of the first year, bringing in $115-142 million, with 20% set aside for bridge restoration from the start. The revenue fund and its independent board are set up. Design begins on the first frunchrooms, each neighborhood's new plaza and main street. The start-up money for Chicago Ride goes out once its Uber and Lyft surcharge passes.
YEAR 2
Ground is broken on the first frunchrooms.
YEAR 3 AND BEYOND
The first frunchroom zones are completed and the fee collects a full year ($230-285 million). Frunchrooms keep being built at the plan's pace (30-32 frunchroom zones by Year 10).
YEAR 4 AT THE EARLIEST
The city can begin borrowing against the money the fee has proven it collects, to build frunchrooms faster.
06
Where it's worked
Chicago today
INRIX ranked Chicago the most congested city in the U.S. in 2025. Drivers lost 112 hours to traffic, at a cost of $2,063 each.
SOURCE: INRIX 2025 GLOBAL TRAFFIC SCORECARD ↗
(OPENS IN A NEW TAB)
Chicago today
The Chicago Department of Transportation maintains 243 bridges, including 36 movable bridges.
SOURCE: CITY OF CHICAGO, 2025-2029 CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM ↗
(OPENS IN A NEW TAB)
Chicago today
Upcoming movable-bridge rehabilitations on the Chicago Department of Transportation's list of federally aided projects cost $25-55 million each, so the fee's bridge share ($51 million a year at the midpoint) pays the full cost of roughly one a year.
SOURCE: CMAP, CDOT 2025-2029 STP PROGRAM ↗
(OPENS IN A NEW TAB)
New York City
Tolls to enter lower Manhattan began January 5, 2025. In the first year, 27 million fewer vehicles entered the zone, an 11% drop, and the toll raised more than $550 million in net revenue. These are the state's own figures.
SOURCE: OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK, JANUARY 5, 2026 ↗
(OPENS IN A NEW TAB)
Chicago Skyway
Chicago built the Skyway under the state law that lets cities toll their own river bridges. It opened in 1958 as a 7.8-mile toll bridge, paid for with bonds that law authorizes. In 2001 an Illinois appeals court ruled that the city acted within its home-rule power when it used Skyway money for other city transportation improvements. In 2005 the city leased the Skyway for $1.83 billion. It used about $463 million to pay off Skyway debt and spent the rest across the city, including a $100 million people, neighborhood and business investment fund, and the tolls continued.
SOURCE: ENDSLEY V. CITY OF CHICAGO (ILL. APP. CT., 2001); FHWA, CHICAGO SKYWAY CASE STUDY ↗
(OPENS IN A NEW TAB)
Stockholm
Congestion charges started in January 2006. Traffic across the charging cordon fell about 20%, and the effect held in later years. In a referendum that autumn, 53% of city voters chose to keep the charges. Support rose from about 40% before the charges to over 70% by 2013.
SOURCE: BÖRJESSON, LONG-TERM EFFECTS OF THE SWEDISH CONGESTION CHARGES, INTERNATIONAL TRANSPORT FORUM (OECD) DISCUSSION PAPER (2018) ↗
(OPENS IN A NEW TAB)
07
Sources
INRIX 2025 Global Traffic Scorecard
City of Chicago, 2025-2029 Capital Improvement Program
CMAP, CDOT 2025-2029 STP program
Office of the Governor of New York, January 5, 2026
Endsley v. City of Chicago (Ill. App. Ct., 2001); FHWA, Chicago Skyway case study
Börjesson, Long-Term Effects of the Swedish Congestion Charges, International Transport Forum (OECD) Discussion Paper (2018)
WHAT YOU CAN DO
The River Crossing Fee is a toll for driving across the city's bridges over the Chicago River. If your car has a Chicago city sticker, you are not charged at any hour. There's nothing to sign up for: the sticker already on your windshield is scanned at the bridge. If you run a Chicago business with trucks, register a transponder, and your trucks are not charged off-peak. Drivers from outside Chicago pay $10 at peak times and $3.50 off-peak, and that money restores Chicago's bridges and rebuilds its neighborhoods.