Congestion Pricing: Is it Time to Try it in San Francisco?

As our esteemed colleagues on the East Coast have documented, the once-controversial plan for congestion pricing in New York, now a year old, is an unqualified success. From Streetsblog’s NYC:

New research from the Regional Plan Association shows that the $9 peak toll to drive into Manhattan below 59th Street has created cascading benefits across the metropolitan area — a change from when drivers were sitting on the road going nowhere.

“Contrary to pessimistic expectations, the congestion pricing program is not causing traffic to be diverted outside the Congestion Relief Zone,” said Rachel Weinberger, an RPA vice president. “Instead, as more people choose transit, trips to Manhattan by car are averted, resulting in less, not more, traffic in the Bronx, Bergen County, and all around the region. We see a reduction in traffic jams and increased overall time savings both within and outside the Zone.”

Which begs the question: if the program is so successful in NYC (and Stockholm, and London, and other places) why not try it in downtown San Francisco? After all, it’s a great way to fund transit and make up for the city’s acute budget shortfall. San Francisco has been studying just this possibility for many years but has yet to build the political will to do it.

That was the topic on KALW’s “State of the Bay,” which discussed the issue Monday evening with Transform’s Zack Deutsch-Gross. The segment starts at about 18 minutes in. Be sure to check it out.