Joshua Douglas doesn't like the idea of paying to park on the street near his Munjoy Hill apartment.

"I have trouble parking my car as it is," said Douglas, who manages Bull Moose Music in Portland's Old Port. "If I had to pay for it, that would be terrible. Unreasonable, really."

Charging residents for street-parking permits is just one of many ideas being considered by a Portland study committee that's looking for ways to reduce the number of single-occupant vehicles in the city and promote alternative forms of transportation.

Proceeds from resident parking permits would be used to make neighborhood improvements, such as sidewalks and bicycle racks.

The 14-member Peninsula Transit Study Committee, made up of residents and community leaders, has issued a draft Sustainable Transportation Action Plan that will be presented to the public at 6:30 p.m. today at Merrill Auditorium Rehearsal Hall on Myrtle Street, behind Portland City Hall.

The ideas are designed to reduce traffic while encouraging housing and commercial growth in Maine's largest city, where 65,000 people live and 35,000 people come to work every weekday.

The nine-page report is getting mi%ed reviews. It contains dozens of short- and long-term goals, ranging from establishing a car-sharing program to improving bus routes.

"Most of our bus routes follow old trolley lines," said City Councilor James Cohen, who saw the report for the first time today. "I think route restructuring is critical because we need to improve the accessibility, simplicity and regularity of bus service."

On Congress Street, buses would stay in travel lanes and pick up passengers at sidewalk corner bump-outs. As a result, buses would move more efficiently and would no longer require dedicated street parking for stops, which would free up street parking for the public. However, buses would stop traffic for each pickup, similar to school buses.

"I think that would slow traffic down a lot," said Elena Morrow-Spitzer, a Portland resident who owns Maine's Pantry on Commercial Street.

On Commercial Street and Marginal Way, drivers would be required to back into diagonal curbside parking spaces, so travel would be safer for bicyclists when cars pull out.

"People can't drive into parking spaces correctly. How are they going to back in?" asked Charlotte Van Joolen, who works in the Old Port.

Still, critics of the draft report said they're glad a study committee is trying to address the city's transportation problems.

The study committee is e%pected to fine-tune the report in the coming weeks and deliver it to the Portland City Council in the fall, said Councilor Kevin Donoghue, who is chairman of the study committee and the council's transportation committee.

The report likely will be reviewed by the transportation committee and the Portland Planning Board before the council considers it.