Bad idea

Boston may introduce a fee for entering the city by car, aka a cover charge. If the money raised were truly used to improve transportation options it might not be an awful idea, but that's the best-case scenario. First off, it would require a pass for people entering the city, discouraging infrequent visitors for whom the cost and hassle aren't worth it. It wouldn't differentiate between people who drive in for an hour or so and people who are here all day long, people who come in for a short visit are much less of a problem parking-wise and are probably spending money, so are among the people we want here, and would probably respond more than others to the program. There would be a boom in parking just outside the city limits (not sure if this is bad, but just mentioning it). The cameras to enforce the program are ominous, a bit Orwellian if you ask me (or even if you don't). London's program is used as a positive example, but, unless I'm misunderstanding the stats, the drop in people driving in dwarfed the increase in people using public transportation/commuting, which is not what we want to improve the city's economic performance. All-in-all, this is a poor idea at best, potentially a wretched one.