Chronicle: Congestion Pricing Plan “Half-Baked”

Congestion ChargingThe Chronicle editorializes against congestion pricing today, calling the plan “half-baked” despite ample experience elsequere in the world (London, Singapore, Stockholm) that congestion pricing reduces traffic and speeds up mass transit.

The Chronicle even cites increased transit usage as a disadvantage of the plan! To quote: “[T]he second intended effect – nudging drivers into public transit – may further burden overtaxed systems such as BART and Muni, which can be inconvenient, unreliable and jammed.” But that’s the whole point – to get discretionary drivers to switch to mass transit, and at the same time reduce delays that cause that mass transit to run slowly. By speeding up service, San Francisco would be able to provide more service for the same money, surely a high priority in these difficult economic times.

Rescue Muni continues to support some form of congestion pricing in downtown SF. We hope the Supervisors will take seriously the concerns raised about this proposal – but not back down from a proven way to improve service for Muni’s 700,000 daily riders AND SF’s motorists, who will experience reduced traffic when they do choose to drive.