San Francisco Congestion Charge?

[Blind_Io]

Yes, you heard it right. Apparently they think London's congestion charge went over so well they might implement it here.

http://www.examiner.com/a-938995~S_F__s_busiest_streets_may_charge_toll.html

SAN FRANCISCO (Map, News) - San Francisco’s congestion wastes hours of drivers’ time while costing them hundreds of millions of dollars in gas annually and forces Muni buses to creep along at speeds less than eight miles an hour, according to a report by the San Francisco County Transportation Authority.
On Tuesday, the authority will present its report on the city’s congestion woes to the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, which oversees Muni. It will also update the MTA on its study of congestion pricing, which the authority believes could reduce car trips and boost Muni ridership as well as speed up the buses.
Congestion pricing — a charge on drivers using certain busy roads — is a controversial idea being explored by a number of cities and has been implemented in London.
On a daily basis, 1 million trips are taken to the downtown and South of Market area, 50 percent of them by car. About 300,000 of the trips are made by public transit, according to the report.

“A lot of our streets are at capacity,” said Zabe Bent, a planner with the authority. “If we don’t turn this around, it will be very difficult to have our system running smoothly.”
The authority is hoping to showcase the effectiveness of congestion pricing by implementing it along Doyle Drive, the heavily trafficked roadway connecting San Francisco to the Golden Gate Bridge. A $1 to $2 toll on Doyle Drive — collected electronically with no toll booth — would remove 10 to 12 percent of the traffic trips during peak hours by causing people to take public transit or drive during off-peak hours, according to the report. The authority hopes to install the toll, which must be approved by the Board of Supervisors, by early 2009.
The authority is also studying congestion pricing for downtown San Francisco, looking at such ideas as charging drivers a toll for use of the Embarcadero, Harrison, Van Ness and Broadway streets or entryways into The City from the Bay Bridge. Recommendations are due out next summer, and the authority will begin holding community meetings on downtown congestion pricing beginning in October.
Congestion pricing for the downtown is expected to be a hotly debated issue. Nathan Nayman, director of San Francisco’s Committee on Jobs, an advocacy group for large downtown companies, said congestion pricing in the downtown area would cause people to shop elsewhere. The real problem is The City’s lack of enforcement of existing laws, which allows rampant illegal double parking in the downtown area, Nayman said.
San Francisco’s congestion

1 million: Total daily trips
532,000: Daily car trips to downtown
304,000: Daily transit trips to downtown
$80 million: Cost of excess fuel in 2005 due to congestion
$150 million: Projected cost of excess fuel in 2030 due to congestion
32 minutes: Average Bay Area trip
17 minutes: Time spent in traffic during average Bay Area trip

I don't know what they are bitching about with the Muni buses, they get their own lanes for most the day forcing cars to pile into a single lane on a street 4 lanes wide.

[Cobol74]

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

FFS Do not do it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Prost264]

Boo-urns

stupid idea

[Ilpav]

If they do this so drivers will either take public transit or do their driving off-peak hours (which most of them will do) Then off-peak times would be rush hour times because these charges are only gonna be charged during rush hour, then everyone is gonna want to drive during off-peak hours.

[Blind_Io]

I'm just going to keep riding my motorcycle, as those are supposed to be exempt.

[zenkidori]

all that for 17 fucking minutes? I'll add this to my list of reasons I dislike Failifornia.

[cvrefugee]

Originally Posted by zenkidori

all that for 17 fucking minutes? I'll add this to my list of reasons I dislike Failifornia.

That's the Gay Bay f*cking things up, not us in Southern Calimexica!

[zenkidori]

you have your own problems to deal with.

the decent parts of cali just keep getting farther and farther north, haha.

[Blind_Io]

Yeah, these days it's somewhere north of Fort Bragg.

[NecroJoe]

"The authority is also studying congestion pricing for downtown San Francisco, looking at such ideas as charging drivers a toll for...entryways into The City from the Bay Bridge."

Are they not aware that there is already a toll that you have to pay to enter S.F. on the Bay Bridge?

[pfrocker]

NOOOO please don't do it! I commute to SF everyday (SFSU student). I wish I had a bike.

[zenkidori]

Just get one. it's not like you can't ride it damn near every day out there anyway. old japanese bikes are cheap, you can get one that maybe needs a few minor repairs for free sometimes.

[epp_b]

Sheesh...paying to drive on the road that your tax dollars paid to build. Ridiculous

[IVIaster]

Wheres Nelson Muntz when you need him?

[ahpadt]

Thats what you get for being the biggest global warming contributing country in the world.

[tigger]

Originally Posted by ahpadt

Thats what you get for being the biggest global warming contributing country in the world.

coughCHINAcoughcough .

I agree with epp_b, but we all know that when the government sees an opportunity to grab some taxes; especially in the name of saving the world or whatever, they jump on it.

[thedguy]

I don't understand congestion charging. The reason there is traffic is because everyone has to be in the same place at the same time. It was the city planners ideas to put all the houses in 1 area, and the work in another.

Perhaps if they pushed more for tele-commuting or do some rezoning traffic would significantly decrease. Oh well, it's Frisco, they've always tried to be more like European cities, no matter how bad of an idea it may be.

Originally Posted by ahpadt

Thats what you get for being the biggest global warming contributing country in the world.

Don't like it? Stop selling us you're oil.

[ahpadt]

Stop putting V8's in family cars I'd rather say.

[zenkidori]

stop being a troll I'd say.

Originally Posted by Jeremy Clarkson

...Toyota Prius. These use just as much fuel as normal cars and are designed only to assuage the guilt of people whose opinions come from a man so hopeless he couldn’t even beat George Bush to the White House.

have fun with your bus pass.