SF leaders considering congestion pricing even though downtown recovery continues
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Congestion pricing in San Francisco is now being considered again after plans were put on a shelf, but not forgotten.
While some may question congestion pricing in a city where the downtown area hasn't even fully recovered yet, officials say you can always dream and plan ahead.
San Francisco and New York are usually leaders in innovation.
So it was only fitting that a team of San Francisco Supervisors flew to New York to understand its congestion pricing program, the first in the nation.
New York charges up to $9 to drive at peak hours through parts of the city.
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The San Francisco delegation, led by Supervisor Myrna Melgar was impressed.
"The program has been a resounding success with traffic congestion down, 60,000 fewer vehicle trips into the city each day, shorter commute times, increased transit ridership and foot traffic and reduced noise levels," Melgar said.
Before the pandemic hit, San Francisco was taking steps to follow New York's lead.
In a study released in 2020, the San Francisco County Transportation Authority found congestion pricing would reduce peak car trips downtown by at least 15% from 2019 levels. At the time, the proposed fee was between $6.50 and $2.17, depending on a person's income.
However, the study was paused as traffic conditions changed during the pandemic.
"Obviously San Francisco is not New York, we're very different, but that is what our job is at the CTA is to study and plan," Melgar said.
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"This was a strategy that we were very much looking at before the pandemic," Supervisor Rafael Mandelman said. "Right now we would like to see more congestion and folks going into downtown."
Unlike New York, San Francisco's downtown recovery has been one of the slowest of any major metropolitan city in the country.
Right now, even the mere thought of congestion pricing lacks the political will.
But Supervisor Matt Dorsey, who was also in New York, said minds can be changed.
"And even talking to cab drivers and people from the airport who were against it said yeah I was against it, now I see it really works," Dorsey said.
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London first implemented the program in 2003 under the leadership of then Mayor Ken Livingstone.
ABC7 Reporter Lyanne Melendez interviewed him in 2005 during a visit to San Francisco about the possibility of bringing the program here.
"Seventy-thousand people less driving in and they're coming in by bus, so it has worked," Livingstone said.
The congestion pricing in London is now the equivalent of $18.
In New York, the MTA says the program brought in $52 million in the month of February alone.
Here in the Bay Area, as BART and Muni face a $600 million budget deficit in the next few years, some may be more welcoming of congestion pricing.
