[Carfreeliving] Matier and Ross: Illegal parking still has curb appeal

[Tom Radulovich]

Illegal parking still has curb appeal
- 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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