San Francisco's Running Out of Room for Cars

That’s led some observers to suggest that now is the time to get real about changing San Francisco’s transportation habits. It’s not just a question of ideology, as Aaron Bialick points out. Beyond environmental concerns is a simple question of space: how many more cars can the city realistically hold?

Even the the Market-Octavia Plan, which has a strict maximum parking ratio, fails to set an upward limit on parking expansion. “Unless plans and the priorities of our leaders change . . . , San Francisco is destined to have worse congestion, less effective transit, and unlivable streets,” writes Bialick.