Parking Meters to Rob Drivers of More Money

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.