Iconic Curvy Road Is A Top Tourist Attraction
By Kevin Wilkerson, PubClub.com Travel Blogger
One of the free landmarks of San Francisco may not be free anymore.
The San Francisco County Transportation Authority officials are considering charging people to drive Lombard Street, the steep, crooked street high above Fisherman’s Wharf that’s one of the top attractions for tourists visiting “the City.”
Being proposed is a $5 fee with a limit of 4,800 vehicles per day. Another plan calls for a weekday charge of $5 and $10 on weekends, in effect from 9 a.m.-9 p.m.
There’s no indication when – or even if – the fee may be applied or how officials will collect it.
You will still be able to walk it for free. One of the cable cars will drop you right at the top of it; this is the line from the Hyde Street turnaround just up from Pier 39 and by the Buena Vista, the place that invented the Irish coffee.
More than two million people visit Lombard Street each year. Not all of them are in cars because you can walk up and down it on the sidewalks in front of the houses.
By foot or car, it’ a cool “hey I’m in San Francisco” thing to do while in town. The curvy part, by the way, is only a small part of the Lombard Street. On the back side of it from the touristy part, it continues down a steep hill, goes through the Marina District (my prime hangout part of “the City”) and onto the Golden Gate Bridge.
My friend lives at the base of Lombard Street on Leavenworth, by the way, and there are always tourists hanging around that intersection. I’m sure he, and other locals, will welcome a fee. Locals have been complaining to city hall a lot lately because “everyone has a phone” as one said.
See more of PubClub’s coverage of and articles on San Francisco here.
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