Rational Pricing: The Mission Bay Parking Plan

As most of the news of late has been about how pissed off the residents and businesses of Potrero Hill are about SFMTA's new parking meter plan, one might get the impression that this opinion is universal.  So why, then, is SFMTA pushing ahead and forcing this down people's throats without taking into consideration anything that anyone is telling them?  Well, maybe it's because they feel like they've done the required outreach, have gotten a good deal of feedback, and not everyone, it turns out, is against them.

Back in November, a SF Streets Blog commentary discussed the issue of free parking and the dysfunction that it causes.  Thursday, they wrote again about "the plan to put a rational price on car parking around the developing Mission Bay area."  According to the article,

Among the organizations supporting the plan are Livable City and the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, who sent letters to the SFMTA this week encouraging staff to move it forward.

“The expansion of metered spaces will provide the parking turnover that neighborhood-serving businesses need,” wrote Livable City Executive Director Tom Radulovich in his letter. “SFPark metering and pricing will also reduce cruising for parking in these neighborhoods. Cruising for parking generates traffic which delays Muni, produces greenhouse gas emissions, and distracted drivers making multiple turns endanger pedestrians and cyclists in these increasingly pedestrian- and cycling-oriented neighborhoods.”

The fight will continue, to be sure, but unless SFMTA backs down, it looks like meters will be coming whether some residents and business owners like it or not.


h/t A. Lantsberg