San Francisco, using $1 million in federal funds, is studying the feasibility of congestion pricing in downtown Frisco. Jake McGoldrick, a city supervisor spearheading the move, got his inspiration from London’s Ken Livingstone:

In 2003, London began charging drivers to enter the central part of the city; Singapore and Stockholm, Sweden, also have such fees. Last year, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg advocated a proposal to charge drivers $8 upon entering a heavily trafficked part of Manhattan, but the plan died in the state Assembly.
McGoldrick said he had been sold on the plan since a 2005 meeting with the man he called “Mr. Congestion Management”: a former London mayor, Ken Livingstone.

It seems that the research has been done and San Fran is not a good candidate for the scheme.

Robert Poole, director of transportation studies at the Reason Foundation, thinks a congestion tax makes sense for London and “probably makes sense for Manhattan.” But: “There’s not enough congestion on the streets of San Francisco to make congestion pricing a solution to a real problem. It’s a solution looking for a problem.”

Maybe it would be good for Gotham. Here is a Manhattan Institute debate over London-style congestion pricing for NYC. But here is an MI oped in the New York Times expressing some skepticism about the plan.