Posted on 01/06/2009 8:42:05 AM PST by BGHater
Following the lead of cities such as London and Singapore, officials in San Francisco are considering a plan to ease traffic by charging drivers a fee upon entering notoriously clogged sections of the city.
Using $1 million in federal funds, the San Francisco County Transportation Authority is studying various "congestion-pricing" options. If approved, such pricing would make San Francisco the first U.S. city to charge cars a fee to enter certain neighborhoods at certain times.
"I want a San Francisco that is far less congested and far easier to navigate," said a city supervisor, Jake McGoldrick, who has shepherded congestion-pricing proposals and is leaving office this week because of term limits.
Congestion pricing generally intends to nudge drivers out of their vehicles and onto buses, subways and bicycles by pushing up the cost of driving into certain parts of a city during peak commuter hours. The fees help generate money to improve public transportation.
In 2003, London began charging drivers to enter the central part of the city; Singapore and Stockholm, Sweden, also have such fees. Last year, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg advocated a proposal to charge drivers $8 upon entering a heavily trafficked part of Manhattan, but the plan died in the state Assembly.
McGoldrick said he had been sold on the plan since a 2005 meeting with the man he called "Mr. Congestion Management": a former London mayor, Ken Livingstone.
Americans have "a very parochial mind-set" about driving, said McGoldrick, whose wife is English.
"It's hard for people to envision anything else because this is such a car culture."
Such a plan would not come quickly, even in San Francisco, which has one of the most aggressive recycling programs in the country and has banned the use of plastic bags in supermarkets.
(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.nwsource.com ...
What ISN’T Taxed in California?
Women, minorities, and gays hardest hit...
“I want a San Francisco that is far less congested and far easier to navigate,” said a city supervisor, Jake McGoldrick
so just nuke the pavement and issue everyone gubermint mountain bikes.
“What ISN’T Taxed in California?”
Homosexuals
Following the lead of cities such as London and Singapore, officials in San Francisco are considering a plan to ease traffic by charging drivers a fee upon entering notoriously clogged sections of the city.
Liberals ALWAYS claim that their policies are designed to help the “dis-advantaged” yet these policies ALWAYS have the opposite affect...
He seems so refined,enlightened, dignified, cultured?
I feel so inferior. Makes me want to donate my pick up to a worthy UN cause?
Maybe Jake should have thought about traffic before he decided to live and work in a city. Nothing is immune from the sticky fingers of politicians if they can justify taxing a farmer for his farting cows. This is getting beyond ridiculous. Maybe the thought of another American Revolution isn’t so far fetched.
Maybe the thought of another American Revolution isn’t so far fetched.Who said it was far fetched?
How did this get by the editor? Nice writing. What is the relevance in the context of the article?
This will add more businesses and residents to Nevada...again.
I do not think the people of SF have completely thought this through. As it is in SF, a parking ticket is (or at least used to be) cheaper than parking in a garage or lot. It was a significant deterrent to drive into town. It is kind of difficult to go grocery shopping via a bus or a train. Tourists like to through bags in trunks and leave a $30 parking charged spot in one place during the day.
I suspect businesses will feel this one as well.
In other words, only rich people will be able to drive in San Francisco, as the fees would be too much for the “riffraff”. San Francisco liberals are so progressive!
“I want a San Francisco that is far less congested and far easier to navigate,” said a city supervisor, Jake McGoldrick, who has shepherded congestion-pricing...”
and I want a San Francisco where the wealthy elite don’t get to drive while all the plebians have to walk or stand on the bus.
They tax the people to buy the concrete and pay the workers to build the roads, they tax the people to maintain the roads and now they want to tax the people to use the roads. Time for a taxpayer’s revolt.
$8 is all? Why not $37 or $3700? I see minimum wage is now at $9.75. Cheapskates those Californians. Why not $100 per hour? Hyperinflation for all. GOVERNMENT RULES!
No, I'm sure what you want is to confiscate more money from people who have to earn it without using the threat of imprisonment, and to get to your boyfriend's apartment a couple minutes quicker to relieve your hard on.
It would seem this impedes the right of free travel.
Additionally, it establishes “separate but equal” communities. How many criminals are going to PAY (and be tagged as “visiting”) some well to do neighborhood they are casing or striking?
You nailed it!
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