San Francisco considers "congestion toll" for driving on local roads

[Auggie]

San Francisco Chronicle, 11-23:

The idea of making San Francisco the first city in the nation to combat congestion by imposing a toll on motorists who drive on the local roads is "totally doable" from an administrative standpoint, a top city transportation official deemed.

But clearing the necessary political and public opinion hurdles is another matter altogether.

Charging people more for anything is always a tough sell. Talk about reaching deeper into people's pockets when the economy is in the tank is even more difficult.

<snip>

The idea will inch forward Tuesday, when the authority's directors - a group made up of the city's 11 elected members of the Board of Supervisors - will be presented with various pricing scenarios and toll-zone locations, and an analysis of the potential benefits and disadvantages.

LINK: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/11/24/BATH148S8T.DTL&tsp=1

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I love public transit when it runs on time (or even runs). And that's the catch. Bay Area public transit could stand a lot of improvement. And money. You can't just dump thousands of more daily riders onto BART, MUNI, AC Transit or Golden Gate Transit and expect them to keep up with demand. They don't have the equipment, operating budgets, or personnel. It could be a nightmare until generated funds show up in improvements. Shouldn't we address this first? Oh wait... we're spending billions on a bullet train to L.A. Yeah, that makes sense.

:eyes:

Regular riders of MUNI Metro in the 1980's will recall the nightmares of which I speak.