Transportation Funding

Supervisors are expected to vote next week on Supervisor Scott Wiener's backup plan for transportation funding -- a charter amendment that, with voter approval, would increase the share of the city's general fund that gets allocated to Muni, pedestrian safety, and bike infrastructure. That share would be tied to the city's growing population.

Earlier this evening, the bicameral Budget Conference Committee  approved a compromise between state legislators and Governor Brown on how to spend $850 million in revenues from the state's cap-and-trade system for the next fiscal year.

The ballot measure to restore the vehicle license fee has been postponed until 2016, under an agreement reached between Mayor Ed Lee and supervisors.

Just because Mayor Ed Lee withdrew his support for restoring the vehicle license fee doesn't mean it's dead. Sustainable transportation advocates are building a campaign to get the measure approved at the ballot this November with the help of Supervisor Scott Wiener, who may introduce the measure at the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, which is the legislative deadline to do so.

Muni vehicles break down far more frequently than in other cities, after years of the system being starved of the necessary funding to adequately maintain its fleet of trains and buses.

Today's Muni "sick-out" reminds us once again that San Franciscans need better ways to get around. The consequences of a transit strike -- people stranded and unable to get to their jobs, queues of drivers clogging streets, and dangerous conflicts between impatient drivers and people who are walking and biking alongside -- are just a more extreme example of the everyday reality caused by the city's lack of investment in real transport alternatives.

Mayor Ed Lee has an opportunity to champion one of the smartest proposals to come out under his administration: A ballot measure to restore SF's vehicle license fee to its longtime level of 2 percent. The measure would raise crucially needed revenue that would boost transit and make San Francisco's streets safer.

Negotiations over the California state budget are producing dueling proposals on how best to spend revenue from the state's cap-and-trade program.

The California Transportation Choices Summit, held in Sacramento this week, was an opportunity for sustainable transportation and public health advocates to spend the day learning about current state policies and legislation in the works to change them.