Tourism officials estimate that in the summer months 6,000 people drive the city’s famous 600-foot-long street in San Francisco. This causes lines of cars that go on for blocks as they wait for their chance to drive this famous crooked California street. But it’s free and it’s fun and it’s a great travel memory.
But, it may not be free for long. California lawmakers approved a bill this week giving the city of San Francisco to ability to establish not only a reservation system, but a toll to drive down Lombard Street.
The city’s County Transportation Authority recommended a toll of $5 per car on weekdays and $10 per car on weekends and holidays.
Lombard Street is known as the crookedest street in the world and runs on a 27-degree hill with 8 critical turns in the curved section of the road. Here, the speed limit is 5 miles per hour, and cars can only drive in one direction – down. Flanking the sides of the road are San Francisco’s most expensive mansions.
For those that live on Lombard Street, they say their neighborhood has become an overcrowded amusement park. Residents have been asking city officials for years to do something about the traffic jams as well as the issues of trespassing and trash in their neighborhood.
In order to officially pass, the bill must be signed by Governor Gavin Newsom.