SFMTA Staff, Prefering Muni Cuts, Vetoes Charging for Sunday Street Parking

As SFMTA struggles to close a $15 million funding gap, it’s looking at various scenarios for transit service reductions. However, agency staff has decided that charging to park on the street in the evenings or on Sundays is too much to ask of motorists.

“Who decided not to provide the MTA Board with this simple option, that was implemented and worked great back in Mayor Lee days and would prevent service cuts from hurting transit users?” asked Michael Smith, a disability and transportation advocate and co-founder of Walk San Francisco.

Smith pointed Streetsblog towards a page in a planned presentation to the SFMTA board at its next meeting Tuesday, February 18, written by Bree Mawhorter, the agency’s Chief Financial Officer:

Of course, these aren’t “citywide” concerns. They’re concerns from a vocal minority of motorists. In reality, the city “community” voted for a transit-first city. It’s hard to think of something that flies more in the face of that policy than cutting Muni service while refusing to charge for private car storage in public streets. Note there’s no such thing as free transit in the evenings or on Sundays.

“The discussions that SFMTA has been hosting in the Muni Funding Working Group prove that once people understand the severity of potential Muni service cuts, they generally support changing our nearly 80-year-old parking meter policies. Instead of embracing this feedback, the agency has ignored it and made this decision without the public input of the board,” wrote the San Francisco Transit Riders Dylan Fabris in an email to Streetsblog. “Citing only vague ‘citywide concerns’ as the justification for abandoning this board-approved plan is troubling and lacks transparency.”

As Smith pointed out in a recent op-ed, the city has also walked back fines for parking in daylighting zones—which makes the streets more dangerous and eliminates a revenue stream. That decision was also made by staff without board approval or discussion.

“We are glad that the agency will be presenting an alternative scenario that can postpone the most imminent cuts by tapping into its rainy day fund, but this summer’s cuts are just the tip of the iceberg,” added Fabris. “More cuts are coming next year if the agency doesn’t act, and parking reform needs to be on the table as just one of the solutions to prevent a complete Muni meltdown.”