San Francisco Mayor's Plan To Ease Congestion Could Cost Drivers Money
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency's board of directors on Tuesday unanimously approved a new Curb Management Strategy, which aims to revamp the city's curb functions and address congestion along city streets.
San Francisco is the second densest large city in the U.S. after New York City, according to SFMTA. Mayor London Breed says the South of Market and the downtown areas are the most in need of traffic interventions.
It's why she's proposing new changes to the SFMTA board to cut down on traffic and manage limited parking spaces. They include congestion pricing as well as metered parking on Sundays and evenings.
Gretchen Greene lives in Oakland and takes advantage of free parking on Sundays.
"It'll be really hard to visit my friends in San Francisco. I specifically plan to visit them on Sunday so I'll be able to park when I come into the city," said Greene.
Transportation officials are already discussing possible ideas. Tuesday's SFMTA vote was to conduct a Curb Management study on proposals like Sunday metered parking. Staff will collect data on proposals, do outreach and make recommendations on future actions.
Bob Feinbaum is president of transit advocacy group SaveMUNI, which held its first annual party in downtown San Francisco Tuesday evening.
"We do need to institute some kind of congestion pricing in San Francisco," said Feinbaum. "They're going to do it in New York. It's been successful in London and Singapore, and it's reduced congestion."
David Mabry lives in San Francisco.
"Pay-to-play is fine as far as like, 'I want to be able to drive all the time,'" he said. "Unfortunately, what usually happens is people with the most money get to take advantage of that, so we'll see a lot of Teslas."
The mayor has not laid out details on how tolls or fees would be enacted.
