Four Steps to Success for Gavin Newsom

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.