Comments on: SFPark: “It’s Really an Exciting Time in the Meter World”

By: Leida Schoggen

Leida Schoggen — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 05:08:17 +0000

The pay stations at the Embarcadero have made parking on Saturday mornings for the Farmer’s Market a nightmare. Whereas I used to get out of my car, put money in the meter and go; now I get out of my car, walk half a block to the pay station, stand in line while those in line try to figure out the system, try to read the screen (when it’s my turn) which is impossible because I have to bend over or squat at an uncomfortable angle to see it AND the glare from the sun behind me makes the screen completely impossible to read. So, I look at the written instructions (still semi-squatting) which, it turns out are not the same as the ones on the screen. The whole process is so aggravating that it ruins the mood of the morning.

By: marcos

marcos — Sat, 23 May 2009 02:14:57 +0000

@zyzzyva:”So, first legal issues prevent the City from installing new bike racks. Now they start removing the most common way to lock a bike? Brilliant, that.”

Indeed. Is there no coordination inside the MTA and between the MTA and Planning on this stuff or are they intentionally trying to forget to think of the impacts on their changes on cyclists? I’d imagine that in typical group think formation, bicycle advocates would probably say “SF Park, that’s cool, go ahead, all of our friends support it” without looking into the implications on meter poles as de facto bike rack.

First, bike route #40 is barricaded at Castro, next mandatory right turn at Market onto 8th impacting on both routes #50 and #23 without any apparent study on how to safely merge bikes and autos and now a pilot project that might end up removing more de facto bike racks than the city could ever afford to replace. Its been a great month for cyclists in San Francisco.

Maliciousness or incompetence?

-marc

By: Jeremiah Schaub

Jeremiah Schaub — Fri, 22 May 2009 03:01:44 +0000

While appreciate the effort to properly price parking, isn’t 17,500 spots a rather large trial? How long does it take DPT to install each sensor and a station for each 8-10 spots? I agree with the other comments – it seems like the ‘trial’ is really a clever way of trying to not ruffle any feathers while doing what should have been done years ago.

By: zyzzyva

zyzzyva — Thu, 21 May 2009 22:57:30 +0000

So, first legal issues prevent the City from installing new bike racks. Now they start removing the most common way to lock a bike? Brilliant, that.

By: theo

theo — Thu, 21 May 2009 22:17:27 +0000

I don’t suppose there’s a way to get new meters that will read Translink cards?

It would be a great way to get Translink into the hands of more people, while increasing convenience for those of us who always carry a Translink card but don’t use meter parking often enough to have a parking card.

By: theo

theo — Thu, 21 May 2009 22:13:25 +0000

The 50 cent adjustment limit is a clever way to keep the Port from taking, out of laziness, a rash step that would cause a parking backlash like they’re seeing in Chicago post-rate increase.

By: Pat

Pat — Thu, 21 May 2009 21:06:15 +0000

So this is not about dynamic pricing to keep an 85% occupation level right now, right? It is just testing the ability to collect data?

If the toll can only be adjusted $0.50 every 4-6 weeks then it can’t possibly be dynamic or demand-driven. Here is to hoping the pilot goes very quickly and that parking becomes market priced very soon.