Make car ownership so expensive that most residents will give up the convenience: Rates for city-owned parking garages, parking meters, residential parking permits and parking tickets have all had double-digit increases. There was a move - which will be temporarily suspended - to begin Sunday parking meter enforcement. "Peak-demand period" meter rates were introduced. The transit agency has called for tripling the vehicle license fee charged by the state by adding a city surcharge in order to raise another $100 million per year from motorists. Fees on cars exceed user fares as a source of funding for the public transit system. Some of this cost for motorists is just the normal behavior of an inefficient agency; some of it is social engineering.
We may have reached a tipping point. A $500 million bond measure to purchase new transit vehicles and re-engineer the streets to be more bus- and bicycle-friendly - with less parking and fewer lanes for cars - is proposed for the November ballot.
At the moment, Mayor Ed Lee does not support the VLF surcharge. Both it and Sunday parking meters will be back.
There is, however, a coalition of neighborhood activists, small businesses, first responders, disabled advocates, parents, churchgoers and just plain folks emerging under the banner of RestoreBalance14 with a set of policy prescriptions: