City could cash in with more parking meters
By: Mike Aldax
Examiner Staff Writer
July 22, 2009
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| Parking problems: Bill Seto feeds a meter Tuesday on Geary Boulevard. A recent study says free street parking creates traffic issues that will only worsen in the future. (Cindy Chew/The Examiner) |
SAN FRANCISCO — Installing rows of parking meters in every city neighborhood is one idea for wringing money from what transit officials have called an untapped resource — parking spots.
Of the 320,000 on-street spaces in The City, only about 24,000 are metered — an equation that is now under attack.
Residential areas are packing in more people — The City is projected to take in more than 150,000 new residents in the next three decades — and the need to manage traffic and parking availability is becoming a key concern for transportation planners, according to a new study by the San Francisco County Transportation Authority.
“Many travelers, particularly in areas where people can afford cars, are driving more,” said Jesse Koehler, a transportation planner with the transit agency in charge of long-term infrastructure planning.
Adding meters to neighborhoods — and increasing parking enforcement in those areas — would add revenue to improve city services such as Muni and other transportation needs, the study said. Most residential neighborhoods in The City do not have parking meters.
It also recommends other citywide “pricing programs,” such as hiking meter rates, extending meter operating hours, increasing parking enforcement and raising permit fees to “more rationally priced” levels. Residential parking permits are currently $76 a year.
Raising the prices at meters — which currently range from $3.50 per hour downtown to $2 per hour in outlying neighborhoods — and installing new ones is a move to decrease the time people park their cars in one location.
When cars do not leave their spaces the resulting parking scarcity creates traffic jams and congestion, as more drivers are prone to double-park or circle city blocks while hunting for spots, according to the report. Increased traffic also worsens air quality and makes it difficult for Muni buses and streetcars to reach stops on schedule, the study said.
New parking meters would also increase the turnover of street spots, ensuring vehicles owned by nonresidents don’t sit in free zones for too long.
In a move to make sure that city residents do not outright reject the idea of putting meters in neighborhoods, the study recommends the affected areas receive a portion of that new revenue for street fixes and other “neighborhood-level” transportation improvements.
The study is part of an extensive 30-year plan that will help guide transportation planners in the future. The County Transportation Authority board of directors, which includes five members of the Board of Supervisors, opted to hold off on approving the study as a guiding principal.
One outstanding concern was how adding meters and increasing parking fees would affect low-income San Franciscans.
“I know there are a number of neighborhoods where there are low-income and working-class residents who may not have garages [and] rely heavily on their cars to get to work, and there have been questions that have arisen because of that,” Board of Supervisors President David Chiu said.
Chiu said he would most likely support new parking-management measures, but asked the County Transportation Authority board to delay approving the item to allow for more input from residents.
Planning for a crowded future
A recent study points out that as The City’s population grows, street parking will be at a premium. Some key points include:
- Increase parking meter rates to market levels
- Extend parking meter operation hours until 10 p.m.
- Upgrade parking technology so drivers can use the phone or Internet to pay or search for parking availability
- Expand meters into more neighborhoods
- Increase residential parking permit fees
- Increase parking enforcement, including upgrading technology used to cite violators
- Offer residents more of a say in how parking is managed
- Offer neighborhoods where parking fees are added or increased a share of the revenue for transportation improvements
Source: San Francisco County Transportation Authority
maldax@sfexaminer.com
