San Francisco – Parking Ticket Roulette (And How to WIN!)

SF Parking Roulette

If I wasn’t sick on the couch today nursing a  death-defying cold, I’d be out today, with the other masses of San Francisco real estate agents looking at all of the homes that are on the market.  It’s what we do to make sure we stay on top of our real estate game.

But that game can be dangerous.  Few parking spaces exist at most listings, and we (meaning Realtors) park illegally, and I mean we park illegally A LOT. I have 3 parking tickets in my car to prove it.  But, I always pay on time, and consider it a cost of doing business.

But because parking in SF is SUCH an issue (especially for those of use with professions that require us to live in our cars), this post on SF Appeal today caught my eye.

Apparently, a guy wrote a book about how to beat the SFMTA ticket writers at their own game. AWESOME!

Some of the tips?

– Check the white zones first because they often don’t have meters.

– Most passenger loading zones are ONLY ENFORCED during business hours, and many yellow commercial loading zones are only in effect until 1 PM.

– Red capped parking meters, which signify six wheel parking spots, are often only in effect for four hours at a time.

– Out of order meter=free parking

– Avoid towing by: remembering that parking restrictions are enforced until 100 feet from the sign, curb your wheel on any street with more than a 3 percent grade (basically, every street in San Francisco), keep wheels within 18 inches of the curb, and remember your front license plate.

Not bad, not bad at all.  I might also suggest buying an SFMTA parking card (which you can get online) and keeping a close eye on your watch when in a 2 hour zone, or parked at a meter.

Oh, and I recently had a panic attack when I read a post on another local blog that said that SF was going to enforce an ordinance that would no longer allow residents to parallel park in your own driveways!?!!????!!!

Since my garage is used for storage (like many other San Franciscans I know) I checked with Supervisor Carmen Chu’s office about this outrage!

I got a PROMPT response that said:

I just checked with the SFMTA and there is no ordinance against blocking your own driveway by parallel parking.  You just cannot block the sidewalk.

Thanks to a few $100 tickets, I already knew you couldn’t block the sidewalk, but I am relieved to hear that you can still parallel park in front of your own driveway (or a really nice friend’s !)

Anyhow – good luck to you in all of your San Francisco parking adventures – may the parking gods smile upon you.