Four Steps to Success for Gavin Newsom

Four years ago, the Newsom administration entertained the idea of swapping some of the city's fleet of automobiles for a car-sharing service. In San Francisco, the publicly subsidized nonprofit City CarShare competes for customers with the private companies Flexcar and Zipcar, with services offering rentals by the hour. I've used City CarShare for seven years now, and can attest that it's wonderful driving always-new cars with always-functioning radios, and never having to look for a parking space.

Replacing the city's fleet with car-sharing services is also a great idea from an environmental and quality of life perspective. Berkeley has replaced 10 city fleet vehicles with 5 cars managed by City CarShare. During evenings, the extra cars are available for rent by the hour. The switch to sharing allows the city to precisely measure car use by employees, ensuring that managers don't hoard vehicles. "We feel like we're sharing more efficiently during the day with our fleet users," says Matt Nichols, who manages the Berkeley plan, and tells me New York City is considering making a switch.

San Francisco, however, has yet to take up a similar plan, instead merely enlisting employees of a couple of city departments as car-share members. "Other priorities have come up, would be a way I might characterize it," City CarShare CEO Rich Hutchinson said. "They didn't kill any discussions, but they didn't push the discussions, either."

Reviving these discussions and switching the city fleet to car sharing might anger unions representing fleet managers and mechanics. But such a move would be a boon for government efficiency, while making it easier for more residents to stop owning cars. Better yet, it would put a real feather in the mayor's cap.

4.) Cut through the political rhetoric to hasten bus service along Geary.

A proposal for bus-only lanes along Geary, making the commute between the suburban Richmond neighborhood and downtown more efficient and attractive, has run into opposition from business owners who fear losing parking places to dedicated bus lanes.

Perhaps it might be better to tiptoe rather than march toward the goal of clearing automobile congestion. For starters, why not implement a bus-only lane heading downtown, to be enforced only during three hours of the morning commute?

San Francisco has bus-only lanes throughout downtown. However, police don't enforce them. So they constantly fill with automobile traffic, making bus rides excruciatingly slow.

Job one, therefore, is to gain control over the police force; officers shouldn't have the option of not enforcing the law. And if they can enforce a morning bus-only lane along Geary, the commute back from downtown would be less congested as well, because workers will have left their cars at home. A successful speeding bus service might gin up more enthusiasm for the languishing bus rapid transit plan.

Succeeding with a few simple steps such as these would go a long way toward restoring the mayor's credibility.