We all know that abuse of disabled placards is a real issue in San Francisco: this, despite the fact that abusers have seen fines get raised again and again — and some even face felony charges! But according to a recent city controller's report, more and more people seem to be using the placards to avoid paying for parking in SF streets, at a staggering cost. Let's look at the numbers.
- $55: The approximate amount of money it would cost to park in a metered spot in San Francisco all day long
- 72: The number of hours you can park in a metered space without paying or moving your car if you have a disabled placard
- $6: The amount of money, due to SF's congestion pricing, it would cost to park per hour in an area where spaces are "filled for hours on end by cars with disabled placards"
- 60,750: The number of people driving with disabled placards in San Francisco as of 2012. That's "nearly twice as many as in 2001"
- 28,000: The number of metered spaces in SF
- 50%: The percent of cars parked downtown that had disabled placards hanging from their mirrors, according to a 2008 SFMTA study
- 57%: The percent of those cars registered to out-of-town owners
- 80%: The rate at which disabled parking placard users have been increasing in the Bay Area since 2001
- 5%: The rate the population of the Bay Area has increased during that same period
- 5: The number of states, including California, that allow free and unlimited parking to anyone with a disabled placard
- $22.7 million: The amount of parking meter revenue San Francisco lost due to abuse of disabled placards
All facts and figures: Misuse of disabled parking placards costing S.F., other drivers, SF Chronicle, November 16, 2014
