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I am not sure congestion pricing will have the desired effect in SF, people will need an alternative means to travel downtown - currently BART or Muni or Street

I am not sure congestion pricing will have the desired effect in SF, people will need an alternative means to travel downtown - currently BART or Muni or Street Cars. If SF had an egalitarian public transport system - as found in NYC and London - then congestion charging would be beneficial to SF society. Since there is no genuine fit-for-purpose alternative, congestion charges are another Tax. And how will SF spend those tax dollars - "solving" city's more pressing problems. Typical SF behavior, we can't fix what we need to fix, so lets "fix" something else.

helen___keller 5y ago
> Since there is no genuine fit-for-purpose alternative Asking as someone who doesn't live there - in what ways are BART / muni / street cars not fit-for-purpose?
- azinman2 5y ago
  Bart doesn’t go to Marin, only has a few stops in downtown (so you might be walking a ways to your destination), was very crowded already with poor scheduling. Muni / street cars are a mess, taking forever to get anywhere unless you happen to live right on a direct path with zero transfers… and even then they don’t run that often. SF, for all its money and values, has terrible public transit and has never gotten serious about it. We need a change of the guard to implement anything — specifically need something like Paris or Tokyo to come in, fire everyone, and rebuild the entire system with a different ethic and mindset.
  - ghaff 5y ago
    About what I was going to write. I know a couple who live in SF without a car--and they're actually quite near a street car line. But my observation is that they depend heavily on Zipcar/Uber/regular rentals.
  - dougSF70 5y ago
    Yes, the Rapid 38 Muni takes 30 minutes to go downtown from my nearest stop while the regular 38 Muni does it in 32 minutes from a stop that is 2 minutes closer to my house. And that is on a route with dedicated bus lanes. Crazy that the Rapid 38 is only 2 minutes faster.

helen___keller 5y ago

> Since there is no genuine fit-for-purpose alternative Asking as someone who doesn't live there - in what ways are BART / muni / street cars not fit-for-purpose?

azinman2 5y ago
Bart doesn’t go to Marin, only has a few stops in downtown (so you might be walking a ways to your destination), was very crowded already with poor scheduling. Muni / street cars are a mess, taking forever to get anywhere unless you happen to live right on a direct path with zero transfers… and even then they don’t run that often. SF, for all its money and values, has terrible public transit and has never gotten serious about it. We need a change of the guard to implement anything — specifically need something like Paris or Tokyo to come in, fire everyone, and rebuild the entire system with a different ethic and mindset.
- ghaff 5y ago
  About what I was going to write. I know a couple who live in SF without a car--and they're actually quite near a street car line. But my observation is that they depend heavily on Zipcar/Uber/regular rentals.
- dougSF70 5y ago
  Yes, the Rapid 38 Muni takes 30 minutes to go downtown from my nearest stop while the regular 38 Muni does it in 32 minutes from a stop that is 2 minutes closer to my house. And that is on a route with dedicated bus lanes. Crazy that the Rapid 38 is only 2 minutes faster.