

A National First: San Francisco Counts Its Parking Spots - niravs
http://www.good.is/post/a-national-first-san-francisco-counts-its-parking-spots/

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dangrover
That's pretty cool.

But I wonder what would happen though if this sort of money was put into
improving MUNI instead (rather than cutting budget/service like they did this
year). Might even go towards solving the parking problem too.

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hnsummary
Video Summary:

San Francisco recently counted all of their parking spaces in preparation for
the SFPark system which will dynamically adjust prices based on demand. There
are a total of 441,541 parking spaces, 280,000 on street parking spaces, and
25,000 metered spaces.

The new parking system will have electronic parking sensors in each of the
spots and will feed this data to an intelligent traffic routing system to
direct drivers to the open parking spaces. During peak parking hours the
system will increase parking prices to encourage people to run their errands
during other times if their schedule is flexible. Also by making the parking
data available online it will help people make better transit decisions and
possibly take public transit if no parking is available. The goal is to make
more land area available for urban living rather and less land wasted on
parking.

[http://hnsummary.com/2010/03/29/san-francisco-counts-its-
par...](http://hnsummary.com/2010/03/29/san-francisco-counts-its-parking-
spots/)

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derefr
> During peak parking hours the system will increase parking prices to
> encourage people to run their errands during other times if their schedule
> is flexible.

Doesn't this mean that people with inflexible schedules (i.e. people who are
in _lower_ income brackets) will be charged more?

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hnsummary
Driving is a luxury not a right. Parking should get more expensive to curb
demand, lessen traffic congestion on the streets and make it more friendly for
other modes of transportation. Public transit, biking, and walking are options
to be considered.

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abossy
Keep in mind that SF is highly gentrified. Lower income people get pushed out
to Oakland and to the cities south of San Francisco. Additionally, lower
income people have less options when choosing a place to live. Hence, a car
might be the only viable option for some.

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aren
I think this video mostly ignores the real reason for the system: the parking
control officers know exactly which cars are in violation, and can rush to
ticket them before they move. At $53 (or $63) per ticket, this is going to
yield millions more in parking ticket revenue.

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chavezmish
This city is a big rip off and is greedy. If they adjust the pricing, they
need to do it across the board so that some of these garages don't have a
license to steal. Personally I think it discourages commerce and freedom for
the merchants and citizens. Everyone is for it probably already takes the bus
or does not have a car. Everyone should be able to make their own choices
without getting ripped off by this greedy city. They are already raising the
meters which means a bundle so what they are doing is condoning greed.

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melling
It sounds great but can't they get rid of the ugly meters too?

In NYC, there's a box on the block instead. Haven't used one in a while but I
think you get a printed receipt. You probably don't even need a box. Everyone
can just go to a web page and see the status for the block, including the
meter person. Next, RFID in car talks to parking spot? :-)

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pak
If you can tell me how to secure the printed receipt in a motorcycle, I will
agree with you that the "box on the block" idea works better.

Let's also not forget that with the muni-meter, you have to make an extra trip
between your vehicle and wherever on the block the meter is to acquire the
receipt and put it back inside your car, and also that if the meter is broken
_you_ are on the hook to run another few blocks to find another, whereas with
the individual meters you got a free spot for two hours.

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enf
There are prototype meters in some locations (mostly near the Embarcadero)
that use central fareboxes instead of individual meters. They get around the
printed receipt problem by having you specify the parking space number when
you pay and keeping track of which numbered spaces are paid for instead of
issuing a receipt to put in the vehicle.

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pak
This isn't a bad way to do it, but then a two wheeled vehicle is in the
unpleasant situation of taking up an entire space, or not knowing which spot
to pay for if between spaces.

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whatusername
How do you fix this with normal meters though?

Here in Aus I've seen all 3 types - the specify a parking spot ones seem the
smartest though.

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pak
With individual meters you can usually find a spot between two meters, or on
the border of a fire hydrant zone, where other cars cover all the meters and
you get a free spot. The nebulous sphere of influence of the per-block meters
compels you to pay no matter where on the block you park (even if it isn't
clear what spot you're in).

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WildUtah
<i>441,541</i> parking stalls private and public in the 49 square miles and
how many registered vehicles? About 500,000 isn't it?

Buy a Fast Pass or learn to juggle.

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abossy
500,000 cars in what given area? People commute to the city from all over the
Bay Area.

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blang
Did I detect a slight endorsement of drinking and driving in the video?

