Toll could welcome future Treasure Island residents
By Katie Worth
Examiner Staff Writer 10/1/08
Living expenses: A toll for Treasure Island drivers could be imposed on residents of the island, according to the Mayor’s Office. Cindy Chew/The Examiner SAN FRANCISCO – Drivers on Treasure Island could be charged each time they drive on or off the island during rush hour under a bill signed into law by the governor that could create the test program for future congestion tolls in The City.
City officials have redevelopment plans for Treasure Island that will transform the low-density residential area into a new community that will include 6,000 new residential units and a new ferry terminal-transit hub.
With Treasure Island’s population expected to increase by 13,000 to 15,000 new residents in the next five years, the new law — sponsored by Mayor Gavin Newsom’s office — is aimed at preventing increased traffic on the already congested Bay Bridge.
In a statement, Newsom said the law will turn “what has always been the breathtaking potential of Treasure Island into reality.”
The toll fees would go toward enhancing public transit to the island and would encourage the island’s residents to forego their cars, said the law’s author, Assemblymember Mark Leno of San Francisco.
The toll plan comes as the San Francisco County Transportation Authority is also studying how congestion pricing could work in other parts of The City, said Jack Sylvan, director of the Mayor’s Office of Joint Development.
The new law declares Treasure Island as an “ideal candidate” to “test the feasibility of congestion pricing as a tool to encourage and fund public transit.”
It has yet to decide the price of the Treasure Island toll, or whether it would affect residents on the bridge heading to Oakland or only to San Francisco, Sylvan said.
Those details would be hammered out by a new “transportation management agency” — to be designated by the Board of Supervisors — that would oversee all forms of transportation as well as parking on the island, according to the new law.
Congestion-pricing fees would have to be approved by a two-thirds majority of both the Board of Supervisors and the San Francisco County Transportation Authority, which is made up of the Board of Supervisors.
A similar bill was passed by the state Legislature last year, but was vetoed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in October. Now requiring the super-majority vote, the law was signed by the governor Friday.
Sylvan said the tolls would probably only be imposed on residents — not visitors — because residents are likely to cause the most new traffic on the bridge. He said imposing the fees only on residents could also eliminate the need of a toll plaza, making the entire toll-collection procedure electronic and automatic.
“Why should we have to pay to enter where we live? If that’s the case, they should impose it on regular neighborhoods, too,” Treasure Island resident Seanda Conley said.
Supervisor Chris Daly, whose district includes Treasure Island, said that although he generally favors congestion pricing, he has remained neutral on the plan to impose it on Treasure Island.
“I want to make sure there are reasonable accommodations, particularly for lower-income residents on the island,” he said.
By the numbers
3,000 Current residents on Treasure Island
6,000 New housing units to be built on Treasure Island during redevelopment
2012 Estimated date of completion for first housing units
15,000 Estimated residents on Treasure Island after redevelopment
272,000 Average number of vehicles that currently cross the Bay Bridge daily
Sources: Mayor’s Office; CalTrans
7 Comments
Reader Comments:
POSTED Oct 1, 2008
Marge Donaldson: "The politicans won't be happy until we are all back living in tents and riding bicycles!!!"POSTED Oct 2, 2008
John: "I just moved here, partly to save on bridge tolls, but also to save on commute time, and gas costs. We have "NO" services out here, no super market, no medical, no gas station, not the simpliest of things, it's just not here. Public transportation wont help us at 3 in the morning. I do not think it is fair to charge us, and not to charge other residents of San Francisco too. What ever happened to "equal protection under the law" Please please treat us all equal."POSTED Oct 2, 2008
Man: "For those of us who work in Oakland, we already have to pay the Bay Bridge toll daily to get to home. It would be extremely unfair as well as a financial burden to pay yet another toll to get back to my home. I am sure many will agree with me that the Treasure Island residents are unfairly targeted in this case. Imposing a toll on entering the island because of traffic congestions is just lame because there are currently no traffic congestions on the island at all. If there are congestions, it is due to events held on the island. And to think that imposing a fee on entering Treasure Island will reduce bay bridge traffic is naïve as 99.9% of the Bay bridge traffic comes from people commute from east bay to the city for work."POSTED Oct 2, 2008
Alex: "I am dead against targeting any neighborhood Congestion-pricing fees particularly one such as Treasure Island where, houses mostly to students and under privileged residents with almost a none existent city services except for Muni and Fire Department and a small Police Station with no public contact number there is only one way in and one way out from each direction those who work in East-Bay already are paying a toll at the West-bond of the bridge and those who work in Peninsula should not have to pay to go East Bond after all I don’t believe the resident should pay upon entering their neighborhood to go home it is unfair and most likely unlawful."POSTED Oct 5, 2008
Island Resident: "Thanks Gavin, sounds like you have a wonderful plan to make situations worse (as usual). I for one would break my lease and leave this floating piece of garbage in a heartbeat if this goes through. Public transportation out here is already horrible, muni in general is bad, but the 108 is the worst, there is no way that some toll will fix that (especially with the way Gavin spends money). The most ridiculous part is the idea that the residents out here are the ones causing congestion, I live on the part of the island where there is no view or events, no one is ever driving over here. On the front of the island though where all the rich people show up in their limos is normally pretty congested, late at night too, not rush hour. If anyone should be charged it should be visitors. No one in their right mind should put up with paying to go home (as if there aren't enough fees related to car travel as is)."POSTED Oct 5, 2008
Marshall: "I hate Gavin Newsom so much. That man is determined to drive our city into the ground with wasteful spending and unreasonable, counter-productive regulation. This will be just another in the long line civil rights violations Gavin Newsom has attempted to perpetrate under the color of law during his "reign." Equal protection under the law, anybody? This man belongs nowhere short of prison."POSTED Oct 8, 2008
Vear: "I live on TI and work in Emeryville, I already find it unnerving that I have to pay a full bay bridge toll just to use half of the bridge and enter and exit onto it from some of the most dangerous and poorly engineered on-ramps and exits in the country. NOW I'm going to have to pay a second toll just to get to my radioactive, asbestos-ridden home?! Gavin you're an evil man at war with the middle and lower class, and an insult to the left."