In their effort to balance a two-year budget, officials at San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency had to squeeze revenue from every conceivable resource, including parking meters and cable cars.
The price of both will go up next July. Meter fees will rise modestly, by 25 cents an hour. Penalties for late parking citations will go up 10%. Tickets for single cable car rides will increase from $9 to $12, and the agency will phase out three- and seven-day tickets. Instead, riders may purchase an $18 cable car-plus pass that covers all Muni rides for a day. Any adult who buys one of these passes can bring two children along for free.
Some fees will go down. Notably, the penalty for drivers who forget to curb their wheels on hillsides — one of San Francisco’s most notorious cost-of-living expenses — will drop from $73 to $48. Officials who proposed that change pointed out that wheel-curbing violations generally have little to no impact on public safety.
Additionally, SFMTA has tabled the city’s long-simmering discussion on whether to charge for parking on Sundays. Former Mayor London Breed pushed for that change prior to the pandemic, contending that it would free up more space on commercial corridors. But the move proved politically unpopular. By contrast, the incremental hourly meter hikes have drawn little pushback, and tourists are unlikely to complain about surging cable car costs.
When SFMTA board directors unanimously approved the new budget last month, they closed a $307 million annual deficit by scrimping and saving on multiple fronts, while also assuming that voters will approve two transit revenue measures in November. Should the local and regional measures fail, Muni may have to slash service on up to 20 routes.
“It has not been easy to come up with a balanced budget, and I know we brought you all a lot of hard choices,” SFMTA Director Julie Kirschbaum said, when she presented her agency’s financial roadmap at the April 21 board meeting. Kirschbaum’s staff has tried to foreground the theme of “efficiency” in all of their policymaking, by freezing vacant positions and hiring more inspectors to enforce fare collection. Board director Steve Heminger said he hopes these common sense decisions continue long after Muni resolves its current financial crisis.
Having passed the SFMTA board, the budget will head to the Board of Supervisors and likely hit Mayor Daniel Lurie’s desk next week.