THE GOLDEN GATE Bridge District, one of the richest and least-well-monitored government agencies in the Bay Area, has a budget shortfall of $69 million, and it wants to address it in part with a plan that would undermine everything the region has tried to do to fight traffic and smog and would fly in the face of the whole notion of public space.

The district wants to put a toll booth on the pedestrian and bike paths, charging people a buck to walk or ride across the bridge. It's an insanely bad idea, and the district's directors should kill it.

The Golden Gate Bridge is more than a thoroughfare – it's an icon, a stunning part of the region's physical beauty. It's also, in practice if not in law, part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Charging people to walk across it would be like charging to enter Golden Gate Park or to hike up Mt. Tamalpais.

Besides, almost everyone agrees that encouraging people to travel and commute by bike is a good thing.

The agency is expecting to spend $1.3 billion on operations and capital projects in the next five years. The bike-and-pedestrian toll would bring in $1 million. That's such an embarrassingly paltry sum for something that would have such a huge impact. It's not even worth talking about.