San Francisco Studies Fees to Ease TrafficNot sure how I feel about this.
Congestion is bad in many cities (London, NY and Singapore are mentioned in the article) and the only way to deal with it is to build better roads and increase public transportation and to discourage driving on these streets. That takes money.
If we charge a fee for driving in congested areas we directly tax the users of the roads that cause the congestion, this makes sense to me. The problem with a general tax (income tax , sales tax, gas tax etc) is that is disproportionally taxes citizens who may or may not be causing the congestion.
So in many ways I agree with this.
But part of me thinks that every American has already paid to drive on these roads, it is your right as a tax payer to drive on public roads, just as it is your right to sit in traffic, just as it is your right to change your driving habits to avoid traffic (something I know all too much about living in Atlanta)
Every America/San Franciscan also has a right to vote on if this is an issue and if it is an issue, on how to resolve it.
An unfortunate consequence of a city road tax is that you are essentially saying you need money to drive to our city. I think civil rights groups will have much to say about this. But being San Francisco maybe if you are smoking pot while going to an organic co-op you can drive for free.
Tiered pricing is always conflicting to me. It seems like more and more industries are turning to pricing models that adjust for usage rather than unlimited subscriptions. Time Warner and Comcast have already started tiered pricing for broadband internet (x amount of bandwidth included in monthly bill, y amount for every extra GB.)
ReplyDeleteAirlines are charging for baggage. Not even extra baggage, I had to pay $15 for checking 1 bag on delta.
It's hard to argue with the logic that users who use more should pay more, but not all things work this way. I pay approx $40/month for my gym membership. I've been going almost every day recently. I use the crap out of my gym and I definitely sweat 10 times as much as the lady on the elliptical next to me who comes once a week, but I pay the exact same amount as her. It would be bad business for a gym to charge on a per use basis, it would discourage membership. I'm pretty sure they lose money on me. Just the amount of water, electricity, paper towels and cleaner I use while I'm there can't be much less than my membership. They make money on all the people who signed up January 1st for a year membership and who will come in for a week and then stop. That's fine with me. I don't mind that they are subsidizing my membership.
Also, this article failed to mention that you already have to pay $4 to enter the city in a car. There is toll whenever you cross either bridge into the city. So I think it would be a little excessive to get hit with another charge once you're in the city, not to mention the inevitable parking tickets.
-Matt
I don't know if this will really help the congestion though. I wouldn't drive out of my way just to save a toll. And I wouldn't ride with a coworker to work just to save a toll.
ReplyDeleteJust one more reason I won't ever live in the People's Republic of Kalifornistan.
Too many laws and too many taxes.
I wouldn't drive out of my way just to save a toll.
ReplyDeleteYep, because you are "rich".
Like I said, this would prohibit poor people from driving and do nothing except piss off "rich" people.
you already have to pay $4 to enter the city in a car.
...and pay an insanely high gas tax.
California already has the highest taxes, highest gas prices and lots of toll roads and horrible air quality... does anyone really think that more taxes is the solution?