According to numbers crunched by a local parking app, drivers in the Financial District, in the Civic Center area, and in the Inner Richmond and North Beach are most likely to get ticketed for errant parking, according to SFMTA data crunched by a local parking app.
Hey, don't let the "local parking app" thing send you packing! I know, I rolled my eyes, too, and rolled them even harder when I realized that the app was the new face of Sweech, that parking-swapping app that got shut down by SF's city attorney back in 2014. (You can find my report from May on the company's mutation here.)
But their analysis seems to hold up, as what the company (now called Spot Angels) did is take the SFMTA's public data on parking ticket revenue and dice it up using the information the startup says they've compiled on the number of parking places per neighborhood. So, assuming their parking spot count is accurate, they say in a report that while SoMa generates the most ticket money in the city ($11,383,000 per year), if you look at the number of tickets per space, the Financial District takes the prize, with 11 tickets per street parking spot.
According to the SFMTA, as of July 1 on-street parking ticket costs ranged from $52 (Blocking Residential Door) to a whopping $875 for those found to be misusing a disabled placard. According to SFMTA data reported by Spot Angels, the most commonly-issued ticket is for street cleaning violations ($73), as they made up 43 percent of those issued and generated a total of 36,718,640 in revenue.
Errant meter use (variable, depending on location) came in second, with a 17 percent ticket share and a revenue generation of $15,325,386. Third are folks who park too long in areas with residential permits ($84): Those were 10 percent of tickets, for revenue of $10,131,108.
They also break down the three blocks you're most likely to get nailed:
300 Townsend St. The most common violation for 300 Townsend St is parking on Bus Zone. This ticket is priced at $288 and the most ticketed time is Thursday at 8AM.500 Mission St. - 1st & 2nd St.
Be aware of street cleaning on Mission Street on Tuesday at 2AM. Almost 4,000 tickets are issued with a value of nearly $300,000/year.400 1st St.
Beware not to block the intersection when parking on 1st Street between Folsom and Harrison. This is the most common ticket, mostly issued on Friday afternoon at 5PM. This ticket is priced at $106.
The best places to park, they say, are the Presidio (fewer than one ticket per spot per year) and Twin Peaks (where your car might get robbed but at least you won't get a ticket). However, as SFist commenter tarniv notes, and I really should have thought of as someone who saw The Presidio in the theater, parking rules in the Presidio aren't enforced by the SFMTA so any data Spot Angel had from the transit agency wouldn't apply to that part of the city.
Related: Do 'No Parking' Signs For Street Cleaning Still Apply After The Street Cleaner Is Gone?
Table: Spot Angels