[Carfreeliving] Matier and Ross: Illegal parking still has curbappeal

[Bert Hill]

There's even more.  In some Western neighborhoods, if you ask a meter person
to ticket someone nearby who is illegally parked (sidewalk, double, etc),
they tell you to call downtown and make arrangements to call the meter
person, even if they can see the infraction from where the request is made.
I suspect that is also the case on Stockton.  Benign ignorance for local
residents.

 

Bert

 

  _____  

From: Carfreeliving-bounces at livablecity.org
[mailto:Carfreeliving-bounces at livablecity.org] On Behalf Of Tom Radulovich
Sent: Monday, March 13, 2006 10:32 AM
To: Carfree Living
Subject: [Carfreeliving] Matier and Ross: Illegal parking still has
curbappeal

 

 <http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/03/13/MNR.TMP>
Illegal parking still has curb appeal 

-  <mailto:matierandross at sfchronicle.com> Phillip Matier, Andrew Ross

Monday, March 13, 2006 

 

Next time you get a parking ticket in San Francisco, here's something to
think about -- you're one of the hapless few.

On any given workday, 1 out of 3 vehicles parked in downtown San Francisco
is breaking the rules -- it's either camped in front of an expired meter, in
a street-cleaning zone or maybe at a curb painted a color that signals a
potential infraction.

And the chances that car will get a ticket? Only about 1 in 20, according to
a new in-house survey by the city's Department of Parking and Traffic.

Department workers who checked 13 downtown and neighboring commercial
districts from Jan. 31 to Feb. 9 found that parking control officers were
toughest in the Financial District, with a "capture rate" on parking
violators of 14 percent.

Best place to get away with it: Stockton Street in Chinatown, where trucks
double-park by the score and regularly overstay their welcome at meters. The
capture rate there is a mere 1 percent.

Municipal Transportation Agency spokeswoman Maggie Lynch said the ticket
shortfall isn't from lack of trying.

"Unlike some cities, our parking officers have to do a lot of other things
as well, like direct traffic,'' Lynch said.

One of the more interesting finds, according to the report, is "use (and
likely abuse)'' of placards for the disabled in the city. About 1 in 10
parked cars surveyed had the blue placards, which allow drivers to park free
and for as long as they like.

In May 2004, there were 32,866 placards for the disabled registered to San
Francisco residents -- an increase of 54 percent since 1995. That same
month, 3,674 temporary placards were issued.

The explosion in the blue placards prompted Parking and Traffic staffers to
make a couple of interesting -- and no doubt controversial -- suggestions.

They include installing meters in blue zones, but without any time limits on
them.

Or allowing a "generous" time limit for the placards -- but a time limit all
the same.

"Those are just staff suggestions,'' Lynch said. She said she wasn't sure if
the city's new transportation director, Nathaniel Ford Sr., had even seen
the report yet.

In any case, any change in disabled parking rules would need state approval.
You can imagine how many politicians would want to take on that issue.

By the way, according to the Municipal Transportation Agency's 2006 fact
sheet, the city issued 2 million parking tickets last year -- for a take of
$84.9 million.

The biggest share of tickets, 33.7 percent, went for street-cleaning
violations, followed by parking meter violations at 27.5 percent.

As for the meters themselves, they generated just $24 million in revenue
last fiscal year -- which once again shows that when it comes to parking,
the real money is in the tickets.

 

Tom Radulovich

Executive Director

Transportation for a Livable City

995 Market Street Suite 1550

San Francisco CA 94103

415 344-0489

www.livablecity.org

tom at livablecity.org

 





 

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