Comments on: MTA Releases Parking Meter Study that Proposes Extending Hours

By: Caity

Caity — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 04:22:46 +0000

What he (Scott Fenton) said… Also, as a result of the latest MUNI service CUTS, it appears that many small businesses in the Outer Clement Street area are folding or, at least, seriously hurting.

By: Scott Fenton

Scott Fenton — Sat, 29 May 2010 15:54:39 +0000

Increasing parking rates and metering on Sundays are idiotic ideas. If you want to emulate Portland and get people to use mass transit and bicycles, make the mass transit system less of a joke and make cycling in the city less deadly. This is the kind of crap that causes Tea Party lunacy. Just keep raising parking meters to $6 an hour and on Sundays. Make going to church a $17 ordeal and push people to shop out of town and visit on the weekends elsewhere. Believe it or not, there are a lot of other choices. Higher meter fees propel the rates up for public garages, reduce retail, and again, push people out of town. They also make SF less livable. You people do not seem to get it. No one can live and run a business in this city relying on the bus system. It’s a disaster, even after decimating traffic on Geary the buses ride in flotillas as much as ever. You still see bus drivers stop full buses in the middle of the day to get lunch at a deli; no other major city permits that kind of crap. You have just raised the cost of a bus trip by 33% when more people than ever are out of work or facing lower salaries. Stop trying to soak people in their cars; make your public transportation a viable and desirable alternative. Then people will come. All you’re doing now is promoting disgust and discontent amongst residents and tourists alike.

By: james

james — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 00:36:41 +0000

Ridiculous. Yet another cash grab, pure and simple. How exactly is this proposal supposed to increase the availability of parking when many people go out for 3+ hours in the evening – ie. for dinner, then to the theatre, clubs, etc – and have no intention of moving their vehicles during this time period. It’s a tax on nightlife and entertainment and the proposed benefits aside from revenue generation are purely utopian. Extending BART and MUNI lines until 3AM would stop the flow of cars from the residential districts of SF and the East Bay and would have a far greater impact than anything else. “Transit first” policies are great for cities that have world-class transit systems, such as New York, London, Paris and Berlin. San Francisco does not have anywhere near the infrastructure required to make this claim.

By: JK

JK — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 20:03:57 +0000

Can Streetsblog explain how these recommendations work with the SFpark program? You don’t mention SFpark in the article, but that covers about 6,500 metered spots with real time parking sensors. A quick glance at the map appears to show at least some overlap.

By: mikesonn

mikesonn — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 04:45:52 +0000

Mr. Newsome, uh oh… Draw a line in the sand – is Newsome still our mayor or is he too worried about socal votes?

Also, I hope that the Board can make a stand and not fold like Oakland. This is best for the city and for business, no matter what those on SFgate lead you to believe.

By: Seth Andrzejewski

Seth Andrzejewski — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 02:46:42 +0000

Great work MTA… the recommendations seem to agree with what I observe. Mission, TenderNob, North Beach, and the Warf all need increased hours of enforcement. Impossible to find parking at late hours… lost revenue opportunities for the MTA.

Is there any talk of increasing rates in high demand neighborhoods? Street parking should be market rate… otherwise it’s inefficient.

An additional benefit: Taking away the expectation of free parking will send the right signal to potential drivers to opt for transit or other means.

Please implement soon!

By: jim

jim — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 02:43:15 +0000

While I would prefer that this happened on its own and not as a result of Muni budget deficits, I’ll take it. This is a win for drivers, merchants and residents. Let’s hope that we can actually get this done.

Thanks to Streetsblog for making sure that the study was publicized. It sounds like the Mayor tried to bury it as noted last week.