By: Josh Voorhees
Greenwire
June 9, 2008
Link to Original Article
While New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg (I) has struggled and failed to launch a bold plan for using tolls to ease traffic congestion in Manhattan, officials in two other cities are taking a more low-key approach.
They are raising the price of parking.
Jay Primus, a manager with the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, said the New York plan is a tough sell because Americans are not accustomed to paying congestion tolls. "But everyone," he said, "is used to paying for parking."
So San Francisco officials plan to assign variable prices to parking spots by year's end in a pilot program aimed at changing driving habits and ending downtown gridlock.
The city's current on-street meter rates range from $1.50 to $3 an hour, depending on location. Under the pilot program, prices will change gradually -- by about a quarter a month -- in hopes of curbing traffic congestion.
Primus said incremental changes spread out over time will make the process easier for city residents than a dynamic system that changes the price several times a day. "We want to take our time and make sure everything goes smoothly," he said.
"So far, things have been positive," he added. "I think that's because here in San Francisco, like in other cities, everyone knows parking can be a problem."
Adjusting meter prices to ensure the availability of parking spaces is aimed at reducing the number of drivers circling the block in search of that elusive open spot, the plan's supporters say. The increased cost of parking at peak times, they say, will also provide an incentive for people to take a bus, ride a bicycle or walk.
"This is just one more opportunity to explain to people that we have to price transportation like any other utility," said Bruce Agnew, policy director at the Cascadia Project, a Seattle-based transportation think tank.
'Pay as you drive'
The Department of Transportation gave San Francisco more than $18 million to help buy technology needed for the parking plan, such as sensors under parking spots to provide real-time feedback on space availability.
The Bush administration is moving overall to shift the financial burden of transportation financing from federal taxpayers to drivers and transit riders. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters told a Washington forum this spring that the ultimate goal was a "pay as you drive" system that will charge for every mile traveled.
After the New York Legislature rejected Bloomberg's congestion plan, DOT redistributed the money destined for the Big Apple to help fund fee-based efforts in Los Angeles and Chicago. Los Angeles will use express toll lanes, while Chicago's plan includes a congestion-price parking scheme that officials there say should be ready by the end of the year.
The overall goal of such efforts, Agnew said, is to start teaching people that driving has costs beyond buying gasoline and maintaining vehicles.
"The more you use and the time you use it is going to affect the price," Agnew said. "The public understands that with energy consumption, so this thought that 'we already paid for infrastructure with our taxes' isn't going to cut it anymore."
