Wednesday, November 26, 2008

San Francisco wants CONGESTION TOLLS? Is our city leaders STUPID?

In just the past week, the following "revenue generating" ideas were created by our city government idiots:
And now... our city is proposing that we also include "congestion tolls" within the downtown region of San Francisco.

And have you seen the map of where they want to put the tolls? It's totally screwed up! They want to create a border on the west side on Divisadero and also cut the Castro district in HALF.

What does this mean for our city? It might mean millions, but also pissing off a ton of residents and commuters to our lovely city. Bridge tolls are already $4 and even higher at the Golden Gate Bridge.

Here are some easy examples of pissing people off:
  • Say a commuter lives in Marin county and drives to SF Downtown to do some shopping. They pay $5 to cross the Golden Gate Bridge, pay another $2 for the Doyle Drive congestion toll, plus another $3 for entering the downtown zone. If you have to park at a downtown variable rate meter, you might as well get nailed with another $5 per hour.
  • Do you live next to one of the congestion rate borders? What happens if you have to drive to your supermarket to get groceries? You would probably get nailed with a $$$$$ crossing fee every single damn time.
  • On the Divisadero "border," I would not have any trouble getting to Kaiser Hospital for my doctor appointment, but how about when I want to visit JAPANTOWN? It's only a short hop away from Divisadero and IT'S NOT CONGESTED. Hell, I can find parking most of the time.
Lastly, if our city wants to make this congestion toll, how about fixing the infastructure of MUNI? If you are forcing people to get out of their cars and take public transit, are they ready for the influx of THOUSANDS of more paying (or cheating) customers to take the worst public transit system around? Delays, missing buses, and overcrowding... yeah... great idea. It works in LONDON because they have an excellent public transit system. Ours is crap.

I don't have any money, but if someone would like to volunteer some cash, the prize winner would be the one who gives the most headaches to city government officials. Go after the Mayor, Board of Supervisors, and the SFMTA.

5 comments:

  1. UnknownNovember 26, 2008 at 12:17 PM

    It's not stupid, it's internalizing the costs of driving on to the driver. Whenever a driver drives around the city, they are foisting most of the costs of their activities upon the taxpayers in general. The congestion fee simply transfers that cost to where it belongs.

    Please also consider that the majority of households west of Divisadero do not own cars.

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownNovember 26, 2008 at 12:17 PM

    Uh, I meant to say East of Divis, not West.

    ReplyDelete
  3. mattoNovember 26, 2008 at 12:23 PM

    Contact the Mayor

    Or give his office a call, and let him know how you feel.

    Mayor Gavin Newsom

    City Hall, Room 200
    1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place
    San Francisco, CA 94102

    Telephone: (415) 554-6141
    Fax: (415) 554-6160
    Email: gavin.newsom@sfgov.org

    ReplyDelete
  4. Whole Wheat ToastNovember 26, 2008 at 12:23 PM

    bullshit. they might as well toll everyone who has a car to drive around san francisco.

    oops.

    ReplyDelete
  5. troymccluresfNovember 26, 2008 at 12:57 PM

    I'm pretty much with ya, though I like the concept. But as you said, Japantown, among other places, don't need any traffic relief, and I think we need a solid decade of good Muni performance before we dump everybody onto the 38.

    ReplyDelete

Please leave your comments! Akit checks on his inbox often.

Questions welcomed too!

Comments are moderated. I expect commentators to be respectful. If you have a differing point of view, that's perfectly fine, but don't be insulting or disrespectful. If I see a pattern of abuse, I will discontinue anonymous postings.