Congestion pricing for San Francisco? San Jose?

San Francisco is considering a congestion charge for traffic entering San Francisco during certain hours, similar to what London has done for a number of years. (Noone's talking about San Jose, yet.)

The effects on our work of protecting open space from sprawl would likely be mixed. On the positive side, the charge would increase incentives to live in the city or near to public transit, which would reduce sprawl. On the other hand, one of our major problems with sprawl is from monster mansion developers, who could probably care less about the charge's cost but appreciate the reduced traffic.

Overall, I suspect the pros outweigh the cons for open space, and strongly outweigh the cons on climate change issues. We haven't looked at the issue closely though, but may need to in the near future.

-Brian