On the FasTrak to fast food

Andrew Glazer

COSTA MESA -- Fast food may get a lot faster next month.

The McDonald’s restaurant at 3141 Harbor Blvd. will be one of four county

franchises that will allow drive-through customers to pay with FasTrak

devices.

The small boxes -- affixed to more than 250,000 windshields in the

county, a toll road official said -- are typically used to avoid waiting

in line on the Foothill, Eastern and San Joaquin Toll Roads.

Drivers buy credit for the FasTrak devices, which is deducted each time

they drive through special toll lanes.

“Now you can also drive through McDonald’s and be charged for your Big

Mac, or in my case, a Happy Meal,” said Lisa Telles, a spokesperson for

Transportation Corridor Agencies, the quasi-public agency that runs the

toll roads.

Telles said the experiment is completely unrelated to the roads’

underwhelming ridership, which has been as much as 40% below what

officials initially forecast.

She said the corridor agency began seeking other uses for the FasTraks

since the roads opened in 1993.

Telles said she didn’t know exactly what day the pilot program would

begin.