London, Stockholm and Singapore drivers already have to pay extra cash to drive during rush hour, and similar fines are being discussed as an option for New York City, America’s most populated metropolis. Now it might be time for San Francisco to grin and bear it—or gamble on MUNI’s ability to try to arrive on time.

By recommendation of Richmond District Supervisor Jake McGoldrick, the San Francisco County Transportation Authority (SFCTA) has been studying the feasibility of a congestion pricing system in San Francisco.

Congestion pricing is a relatively fresh concept that has reduced rush hour traffic in a few metro areas outside of the U.S. but could soon be in effect in the surprisingly car-dependent San Francisco. It would require drivers who wished to drive through heavy traffic areas to pay rush-hour tolls. While no one is sticking the label “L.A. by the Bay” to San Francisco yet, our fair city did rank second after the Los Angeles Area in the Texas Transportation Institute’s study of extra hours spent sitting in traffic, a chore anyone who has driven around South of Market on a weekday afternoon already knows too well.

Not only would congestion pricing reduce the heavy rush hour traffic downtown, but it would also be a jolly green giant leap for the city. Students want to be greener, but for a lot of us, it seems as if the only way to make it to class on time is to drive.

But is charging drivers who already pay at least four bucks to drive over a bridge really a solution to the traffic and emissions problems that plague San Francisco? Would implementation and enforcement of these types of charges really discourage people from driving in and out of town, or would it make living and working in one of our nation’s most expensive cities even more cost-prohibitive?

Congestion pricing would be a great solution to these problems, if they first fixed the real problem: public transportation. BART is crowded and smelly, its stations aren’t always accessible to all East Bay neighborhoods, Cal Train is slow, and as many SF State students know, Muni sucks. The first two weeks of classes each semester are characterized by the large crowds of students waiting along Sunset Boulevard and 19th Avenue looking on wide-eyed as the crowded bus they waited over an hour for passes them up. Sometimes the M-Line will just stop in the tunnel, and stay there.

But it seems as if Muni won't be throwing any more money into improving service, because they are instead throwing more money at their top officials. San Francisco Muni chief Nathaniel Ford, already the city’s highest paid public official, just received a $17,000 raise and a $20,000 bonus, bumping his annual compensation to $336,000.

Maybe before the SFCTA goes into an intensive and probably useless study on congestion pricing, they should sort out less difficult alternatives for drivers. Make our public transportation work for us, so that we can get out of our cars.

Congestion pricing or not, the Municipal Transportation Agency is in a sad state of affairs and must be overhauled immediately. Buses, subway cars and streetcars must run on time, every time—no excuses. More drivers must be hired, more trains must pull up at stops when they say they will, and maybe our commuters will regain faith in and rely on Muni again. More people taking public transit is a failsafe way to dramatically reduce traffic as well as pollution, and you won’t have to charge anyone more to do it.