The true cost of driving

What’s the point?Some commuters who come into The City from Marin County find it more cost-effective to drive rather than take public transit, as the Golden Gate Bridge toll is only charged for southbound travel. (AP)

SAN FRANCISCO — Driving in the Bay Area was never a bargain, yet the cost to cruise the region’s congested, pothole-ridden roadways is going nowhere but up.

Even after fueling cars with some of the nation’s most expensive gas, Bay Area drivers can look forward to increases in parking fees, traffic citations, bridge tolls and vehicle-maintenance costs, among other new or proposed charges.

The increasing costs are the result of “all those little things that happen together,” including the recession, inflation and increased shipping costs for car parts, along with other factors, according to AAA of Northern California.

For starters, the cost of registering a vehicle in the state increased last month as a way for California to help close its budget shortfall.

In addition to paying the state registration fee, there are proposals that would allow regional agencies and counties to implement their own fees. The Bay Area’s Metropolitan Transportation Commission is pushing for legislation that would allow counties to increase vehicle-registration fees by as much as $10. Those extra funds, however, would have to be used toward projects benefitting drivers, such as road repairs or traffic-calming projects, the commission said.

Along with registering a vehicle, drivers must purchase insurance under state law. Annual premiums, which have increased on average by $170 from last year, are expected to rise another 7 percent in 2009, according to analysts.

Once the paperwork for a car or truck is taken care of, drivers must hit a gas station, where they will be paying prices that have nearly doubled in the past decade (a gallon of unleaded fuel averaged $1.50 in summer 1999). On top of the skyrocketing cost of gas, there has been recent talk at the federal level of a possible hike in the fuel tax of anywhere from 10 to 40 cents per gallon.

“No one wants to talk about raising gas taxes,” Steve Heminger, executive director of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, said at a recent meeting.

But Bay Area roadways need the extra money, he said, which is why the transit commission supports a tax increase.

“The revenues that we counted on before are not there, or [are] not enough,” said Bijan Sartipi, a Caltrans district director.

After commuting on the Bay Area roadways, drivers will have another expense: maintenance.

Bay Area drivers are paying more than $700 annually — second only to the Los Angeles-area motorists — on car maintenance due to the wear and tear caused by aging roads, according to a report released last month by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials.

Some of the new fees drivers will soon be paying will go toward projects benefitting congestion relief and upkeep on Bay Area roadways — recently ranked among the bumpiest and most gridlocked in the nation — but that’s just to offset state cuts.

California, which is grappling with a burgeoning budget deficit, has slashed funding earmarked for road repairs. That’s why regional planners are turning to drivers for extra cash, according to the transit commission.

“I’m not sure I’ve seen a worse situation,” Heminger said.

In all of the driving around the region, people who need to traverse the Bay are also slapped with an additional costs: bridge tolls.

An idea was recently pitched to increase the cost of seven state-owned toll bridges — excluding the Golden Gate Bridge — from the current $4 to $5. That money would go toward seismic retrofits on some of those bridges.

The money drained from drivers’ wallets is also being pumped into projects that are meant to improve the roads, but in a less direct way.

One of the keys to decreasing congestion and wear and tear on roadways is to convince more drivers to take buses, trains or ferries to work, transit advocates say.

To do that, however, public transportation needs to be the more enticing option. And many of the Bay Area’s 26 transit agencies — including BART, Muni and Caltrain — are raising fares and slashing service after enduring recessionary cuts to state funding and local tax revenue.

The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, which overseas Muni, recently approved increasing parking-meter rates citywide in order to close its $129 million deficit. BART has also added or increased parking fees at stations to help with its shortfall. Caltrain recently increased parking citations and is considering raising the price of station parking.

“There’s only so much I can handle,” said Jamie Woodall, 24, a Mill Valley nursing student who drives into The City daily for work and school.

She pays $5 to cross the Golden Gate Bridge going southbound weekday mornings, which is actually less than the slower bus trip, considering Golden Gate Transit buses charge for trips in both directions. But that doesn’t account for parking costs — or those citations when she’s late to feed the meter.

“I get at least one ticket every month,” Woodall said, adding that the extra costs probably will not stop her from driving.

Trying to find balance between driving, public transit

Driving and taking public transportation — those are the two main options for most Bay Area
commuters.

And though at times it may seem that there’s a battle between those who drive and those who do not, city planners and transit advocates say striking a balance between autos and transit vehicles on city streets is the principal goal.

“I really think it’s a false choice to pit drivers versus pedestrians versus transit riders,” said Gabriel Metcalf, executive director of the
San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association. “The trick is to first give people choices, to not force people to either waste a lot of time sitting in traffic or sitting on a bus that’s going nowhere.”

Some of the conflict arises from proposals that seem to be taking money from drivers to pay for public transportation in The City.

There are recent proposals to increase parking-meter rates citywide — and to extend meters’ hours of operation late into the evening and all day Sundays. The extra funds that would be garnered would go toward helping the Municipal Transportation Agency tackle its burgeoning deficit.

Another example is an idea currently being studied to impose fees for motorists driving into downtown areas. The concept, formerly called congestion pricing, would place an additional burden on driving commuters. But it would also reduce gridlock, allowing Muni buses and streetcars more space to roam, thus improving public-transit reliability.

The increased costs for drivers would also, however, go toward improvements to roadways and other amenities that have been paid for by the general public through tax dollars, said

Tom Radulovich, founder of San Francisco-based Livable City. Transit agencies such as San Francisco’s, however, receive a much smaller share of those tax dollars, he said.

“What is relatively new is the idea that motorists should pay these costs directly, rather than expect them to be treated as something society as a whole should cover,” Radulovich said. “Doing so is fairer and more sustainable, environmentally and financially.”

Metcalf said the key to balancing driving and public transportation is land-use planning, something San Francisco has already been rather efficient with.

“Most of our jobs are in tall buildings downtown that have a lot of transit lines connected to them,” he said.

Cost increases

The average price of all types of unleaded gas during the month of June:

Year     Average price
1999    $1.52
2000    $1.79
2001    $2.00
2002    $1.67
2003    $1.88
2004    $2.34
2005    $2.44
2006    $2.09
2007    $3.30
2008    $4.50
2009    Nearing $3

Sources: U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics

Paying price to drive

Some of the many expenses that come with owning a car:

$2.92
Average price of unleaded gallon of in San Francisco

63.9 cents
Gas tax, per gallon

$1,711
Average car insurance premium in California

$350
Cost to park per month in downtown San Francisco*

$705
Annual cost for wear and tear to a vehicle from driving on Bay Area roads

$4
Cost per crossing for state-owned bridges, including Bay Bridge

$5
Cost per southbound crossing on Golden Gate Bridge, with Fastrak
* 2008 data

maldax@sfexaminer.com