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Everyone's favorite San Francisco rabblerousers, Matier & Ross, wrote an article on a proposal to raise parking meter violation rates. If approved, violating a meter's time downtown could result in a $60 ticket.
Under the plan before the Municipal Transportation Agency, all tickets under $90 would go up $10 - including the ever-popular street-sweeping ticket, which snagged 664,361 people last year and would increase to $50.
... Increasing tickets by $10 translates to an extra $11 million a year or so for Muni.
On the other hand, every time ticket prices go up, people tend to be more careful about their parking or - after getting dinged - maybe take a look at shopping somewhere else.
We don't usually park downtown, but we have gotten the occasional ticket for forgetting to move our car for street cleaning. $40 hurts, but now $50? At that rate, we'll be personally funding the city's money probs.
Photo by Kaiyen.
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I believe the general idea is to make San Francisco as unfriendly as possible for cars and their owners, and push everyone onto delightful, clean, safe & reliable public transit.
The meters won't be doing the robbing - the meter maids will. And they won't be robbing - they will be fining those who don't follow the rules. Pay the meter, no ticket, easy.
M&R's article is crap. They are rabble rousing that people are going to start driving to San Jose or Walnut Creek to shop. The extra gas money/bridge tolls for someone from say, Marin, to drive to Walnut Creek to shop would pay for a luxurious stay in a parking garage in Union Square. Theatre goers? What Theatre goer is parked at a meter that has a max time that would expire before the intermission?
If anything, increased fines are good for business because it improves turnover, making it easier to find a spot in the first place. People are far more likely to have a problem with finding a spot than paying the meter.
I do understand the pain on the street cleaning tickets, having been dinged more than a few times for those. There is an answer for that problem too...
This may be just what we need to start the citizens revolt against the devil that is "street sweeping". If you think about it, those street sweepers are about the least "green" element of the City's operations. A fleet of hundreds of diesel-fueled trucks doing a job that could be done by hand, and done better. Look, Supes, we all know that street sweeping is just a farce to raise money. It takes our cash, hurts the environment, and, in the end, doesn't really keep the streets clean. Maybe we can stage a full-scale protest to: END STREET SWEEPING NOW!!!
"push everyone onto delightful, clean, safe & reliable public transit."
Dear Muni,
Sorry for bleeding all over your clean seats the last time I got stabbed. I'll try to bring more gauze as a precaution next time.
Yours,
what
Here's what's really wrong with this proposal - in an attempt to get "more money" for the MTA, they're raising parking fines.
Now, if everyone starts making sure their meter is fed during their time on city streets, ironically, they'll make LESS money off this proposal since fewer people will be getting those big tickets. Then they'll raise 'em higher and higher...
More importantly, using parking tickets as a revenue stream is inherently risky and unpredictable. It's also using the criminal justice system as a de facto taxing system. Parking fines should be used to punish folks who don't pay their meter or are causing a public safety issue by parking unsafely, not as a "revenue source."
Only Elsbernd and Chu seem to recognize that the true problem with our City and County budget is a spending problem. Instead of looking for more ways to increase revenues, they should man up and cut the waste.
There are just times when I'm a spaced-out idiot and forget which street I'm parked on. It'd be nice if I got one or two freebees on the street cleaning tickets with my neighborhood parking permit. I'm not trying to be a jackass by leaving my car there, as evidenced by the other 50 weeks I'm appropriately parked.
Why not take mass transit to go shopping? Or suck it up, park in a garage, and pay the going rate?
M&R missed the boat on this one.
They should make it easier to pay though. Those prepaid cards are nice, but who has time to go to 1 South Van Ness to buy them? Make them available citywide.
yes, there is a spending problem, one led by the Mayor last year, but no one likes to talk about that!
Greg -
You've contradicted yourself. You say that fines should be used to punish violators. You also say if we raise the fines, there will be LESS tickets. This implies that a whole hell of a lot of people don't consider the current fines much of a punishment, but if they were higher, they might start following the code.
By your argument, if the fines are supposed to be a deterrent, but the city issues a million a year, they aren't a very good deterrent as is, and we should jack them up!
Yep just another TAX for the over taxed SAN FRANCISCANS .... I'll be doing my shopping online and in MARIN!
Um...what is there to buy in Marin? I've lived here for some time and I've never once heard anyone say "I wanna go shopping...let's go to the mall in San Rafael!"
You could buy ... um ... Sausalito t-shirts.
spysea says:
"Yep I like driving--but I don't know how to pay to PARK!!! My parking violation is a tax!!! I don't know what taxes are!!! I will PUNISH san francisco!!!! Yep!!! Yep!!!
It's FEWER tickets, not LESS!!!
Sorry, pet peeve. Carry on.
In response to "This may be just what we need to start the citizens revolt against the devil that is "street sweeping". If you think about it, those street sweepers are about the least "green" element of the City's operations."
Actually, street sweeping is the most effective strategy to fight pollution of the Bay and Ocean that surround San Francisco. Most of the pollution comes from runoff off of buildings and streets, laden with heavy metals, oils, and other crap, and a lot of it goes straight to the Bay without treatment. Street Sweepers are one of THE GREENEST things the City does, and much as the City would love love LOVE to have hand sweeping, talk about things MTA/DPW/Planning dream of but cant afford!
Streets cost the City tons, and parking illegally, whether it be double parking blocking buses, parking during street sweeping, or just circling around looking for parking which costs EVERYONE tons (see "The High Cost of Free Parking, http://www.planning.org/APAStore/Search/Default.aspx?p=1814), people deserve to be penalized for screwing the rest of us by being inconsiderate.
@murph: perhaps I was not clear. I haven't contradicted myself - I never said that they "should" raise the fines.
Fines should ONLY be used for legitimate safety/law enforcement purposes, NOT treated as a "revenue source" as the MTA and MUNI clearly treat it. That's why instead of simply using them for their intended purpose, SF (and most cities) abuse parking tickets.
You can go to my blog where I talk more in depth about this, and realize that despite the fact I ride MUNI, I don't know that treating people who need a car as satan-worshipping evil beings is good idea.
@greg - how exactly do you propose that we accomplish the following without the side effect of "revenue sourcing"..
greg says "Parking fines should be used to punish folks who don't pay their meter or are causing a public safety issue by parking unsafely, not as a "revenue source."
One positive note, at least while the "pilot project lasts, is that the pay-by-cell phone areas enable us to re-feed the meter when it is running low - getting an alert by email when it is.
You do not have to go back to your meter to put more coins in.
One of the three companies providing pay-by-phone to feed meters is zipidy. It offers the fastest way to re-feed - by SMS - one button.
Also Zipidy (and maybe the others??) do not charge you until you go back to your car, and sign out via phone that you are leaving.