Strange Observation About the SF Parking Meters - 25 Cents an Hour?

Parking in San Francisco can be a challenge, and those pesky parking meters can empty your pockets of quarters in no time.

Even the city owned garages have odd prices.  Now they charge more for times when parking is in high demand, but gives a nice lower price during less demand.

I've had an interesting experience today when I had to go to a dental appointment this morning in Japantown:

Since my appointment was at 9AM, I arrived too early in the neighborhood, so I parked in a parking space just across the street from the dental office.  The meter said starting at 9AM, the parking fee would be $2 per hour.

Since I had some time to burn, I got back in my car since it was cold and played around with the SFpark iPhone application.  It was correct that the parking would be $2 an hour, so I toyed around with the application to see how much it would cost to park somewhere further.

Around the corner from where I parked, the 9AM price was $1.50 an hour.  Not bad for a small 50 cent savings, but how about on Geary Boulevard?  I found out the parking on Geary Boulevard is just 25 CENTS PER HOUR from 9AM to noon.  What a heck of a bargain and it was just an extra couple of minutes walk from where I was currently parked.

Really?  Just 25 cents?  That's a huge difference than on Post Street where it would have cost me $2 a hour.

Also, one of the perks of parking at one of those smart looking meters is I can pre-pay the meter.  Since my appointment was at 9AM, I put 50 cents in the meter for two hours at 8:45AM, and the meter won't deduct the money until 9AM, therefore the meter would expire at 11AM.

The SFpark app sure did help me save some money on parking.  It's good when you are looking for cheap parking in the morning when there are few cars, but if it's a busy day and parking is pretty bad, the app won't help you because you'll take any parking space you'll find and pay whatever price it says. (Disclaimer: Don't use the app while driving)

I highly suggest purchasing a SFMTA Parking Card.  It's accepted at all city parking meters, and it's better than a credit card because not all city meters accepts Visa or MasterCard.

Your Survival Guide to the USGA's 2012 U.S. Open at SF's Olympic Club

NOTICE: Taking BART to the U.S. Open on Thursday?  READ THIS.

Another big golf event means raking in the tax dollars for the city, but also means headaches for us locals just trying to go on our merry way.

So here's my survival guide to you, the average citizen who doesn't care about golf.

The USGA's 2012 U.S. Open will be held at the Olympic Club, located in the very deep southwest corner of San Francisco and straddles between the borders of San Francisco and Daly City.

The location of the course is surrounded by four major streets/roads: John Muir Drive (North), John Daly Boulevard (South), Lake Merced Boulevard (East), and Skyline Boulevard/Highway 35 (West).  While the Olympic Club is closed to the public as it is a private club for the wealthy, the U.S. Open will make it open to the public with the purchase of a ticket.

The tournament is scheduled to go from Monday, June 11th to Sunday, June 17th with practice rounds on the first few days, and the rest as the tournament.  Crowds and major media attention is likely going to peak during the last final days, especially during the weekend.

Traffic Problems
From what is currently known from the U.S. Open, an article from SFGate, and SFMTA/Muni's websites, there are some key road closures that will definitely put a dent in your commute.

Skyline Boulevard (Highway 35) in the northbound direction will be closed from John Daly Boulevard to John Muir Drive from approximately 5AM to 10PM during every operating day of the U.S. Open.  The southbound direction will have one lane closed between the two streets, but the other lane will remain open.

John Muir Drive, which borders the northern end of the golf course, is closed to traffic.  It is scheduled to close starting at 6AM on Sunday, June 10th and will remain closed until 6AM on June 18th (as per SFgate).  However, contradictory to what the Chronicle is saying, the 18-46th Avenue bus line will still be able to go eastbound on John Muir (as per SFMTA), but is unable to go westbound.

There is also the likely possibility of a traffic jam on the east side of the golf course along Lake Merced Boulevard.  Between John Muir Drive and John Daly Boulevard is the community park and will be the staging area for all taxis and limos as drop-off and pick-up points.

Better alternate routes:

Take 280 and 19th Avenue:

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Take Sunset Boulevard which changes to Lake Merced Boulevard, Brotherhood Way, and 280.  UPDATE: This is not a great route, southbound Lake Merced Boulevard can get jammed by heavy traffic all the way from Font, but once you make the turn to Brotherhood, traffic flows fast.  An alternative is to make a left turn onto Winston towards Stonestown and turn right onto 19th Avenue.

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Parking Problems
As there will be incompetent people on the road looking for a sweet parking space to go watch golfers stroke their [three] wood and wash their [golf] balls, expect major parking problems in the surrounding areas.

As always, there will be those golf spectator idiots who thinks parking in a private parking lot such as Burger King's or the Westlake Shopping Center is a great idea.  I'll tell you, it's not, and expect a nice tow truck to haul the car away.  They probably have extra security watching over the lots.

Here's a list of areas where parking might get hard, and these are areas where it's "close" to the entrance on John Muir Drive.  BUT in reality, parking in one of these areas means one hell of a long walk.

• South end of the golf course, such as near Joe's of Westlake (they do make a great Steak a la Bruno).
• Lake Merced from Winston to Font.
• SF State and Parkmerced area (most parking is limited to one hour).
• Merrie Way (Janet Pomoroy Center).

One way to definitely piss-off a lot of people is to park in the SF State garage.  If you have no university related business, stay the hell out.  You seriously don't want to mess with students, faculty, and staff; the lot is for them so they can go to or teach class, or do their jobs as university officials.

UPDATE: Golf spectators with a special permit to park in the SF State garage is permitted to do so.  If you don't have one of those permits, you'll be turned away.  SF State students, staff, and faculty should be prepared to show their campus ID, employee parking permit, or have a legitimate reason to park on-campus.

Public Transit Problems:
There's only two bus lines that runs close to the action: Muni's 18-46th Avenue and Samtrans 122.

Samtrans may encounter traffic, but Muni will feel the pain.  All 18 line service going from Legion of Honor to Stonestown will operate normally.  All 18 line service going from Stonestown to Legion of Honor will have to be re-routed.  See maps below.

This is the normal route the 18-46th Avenue line takes to go from Stonestown to Legion of Honor (via westbound John Muir):

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This is the detour the bus must take due to the westbound John Muir closure:

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If you are trying to get to the event...
The parking lot is at Candlestick Park.  You think I'm kidding?  No.  There will be luxury shuttle buses transporting people to and from the stadium's lot to the golf course.

For those of you riding BART, take the train to Colma station (NOT DALY CITY) and board a shuttle to the golf course.  Please remember, parking in Colma station to ride the shuttle is a violation of BART parking policy and will be cited and/or towed; it is only for BART passengers.  Park at a different BART station, pay the parking fee (if applicable), and take the train to Colma.  Go to BART's website and get information about parking and how to get a reserved parking space permit.

For more information, please visit:
USGA Spectator Guide (Transportation Info)
SFMTA/Muni 18-46th Avenue affected routes
SFgate article on U.S. Open

The Winners & Losers of the SFpark Program

SFpark has been around for approximately nine months as a big experiment where us lab rats (citizens & visitors of SF) pay for parking on a market demand system with new parking meters that takes your credit cards, allows longer time to park, and an app that shows people about parking availability and prices (which initially failed).

So after all these months, who are the winners and losers? Let's take a look:

Winners:

1. SFMTA/government - they rake money hand over fist because they jack-up parking rates during peak times and also accepts credit cards for those who doesn't like carrying a roll of quarters. Can that extra money help fix Muni?
2. Off-peak parking rates - If you park in a garage like Japantown's, you pay only $1 per hour for parking before 9AM and after 6PM. The street spots are all taken, so the garage's $1 per hour fee is nice; especially they do it by the half-hour, so if you don't need a full hour, it's just $0.50 for every 30 minutes.
3. Clear signage at garages - It's easy to know what the parking rates are with their big clear signage at the garage entrance.
4. Walking an extra block - The SFpark map shows the parking rates for the pilot program's area. In some cases, just one block away, the parking rate is LOWER. For example, on Webster street, from 12PM to 3PM, it's $2.50 an hour, just across the street is just $2.00 an hour.
5. Neighborhood stores & restaurants - With lower rates at non-peak times, it means more people will visit the neighborhood and patronize. For $1 an hour in the Japantown lot after 6PM, merchants can help bring in more of the dinner crowd.
6. Parking still free at meters - Sundays, some holidays, and before 9AM and after 6PM is still FREE!

Losers:

1. The parking meters - It's nice to know that just a block away parking might be cheaper, but the meters don't tell you the parking rate until you park your car and read the little screen telling you that.
2. Extreme variable parking rates - If the city authorized special parking rates for "special events" you could be paying outrageous parking fees (between $5 and $40), even if you have no interest or want to participate in the "special event."
3. SFpark app - It's illegal to use a phone while driving, so how in the heck will you know what the parking rate or availability is?
4. Peak-parking rates at garages - $2.50 an hour in the Japantown lot vs. going down the block and getting lucky with a street space for $2 an hour is a big deal for this broke blogger.
5. PayByPhone service - 45 cent fee per transaction? At least using a traditional credit card has a ZERO fee.
6. Future NFC payments for parking - There's very few NFC (near field communication) cell phones, such as the Google Nexus S that does NFC; the ever popular iPhone 4S and older iPhone models don't have NFC.
   
7. Attitudes of consumers - To me, a change in the parking rate doesn't force me to drive less, park further away, or take the bus; if I find a parking space and it says $3 an hour, I'm going to pay it because I've already been driving around the block several times finding some kind of parking space.

Akit's Opinion
In my opinion, I like SFpark because the off-peak rates are very attractive, but the peak rates just wants to make a bigger hole in my wallet. How long more until parking garages and meters will take Clipper cards?

Side note: Sorry for prematurely publishing this blog post. I wasn't finished typing and editing; and accidentally hit the publish button.

Half of Ocean Beach Parking Lot Closed for Outside Lands - Only One Vehicle Used Lot

It's Outside Lands time again, and for us folk of the Outer Richmond and Sunset districts, we're at war.

Let's face it, there's another year on their agreement with the city to host this monstrosity, so let's get our ear plugs or run to some other festival like this weekend's Nihonmachi Street Fair in Japantown.

What Parking?
Yesterday, I commuted via the Great Highway to and from my job at SF State, and I noticed something, half of the Ocean Beach parking lot was blocked-off, which meant about a good hundred or two cars can't use that part of the parking lot.

I knew that last year, I called the Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA) and they had to contact the city to find out who blocked-off a large section of the parking lot. They called me back and told me it was for Outside Lands.

And for the last couple of times they've blocked the parking lot, the blocked-off portion was BARELY USED.

Just yesterday afternoon on my drive back home, there was only one vehicle parked in that huge section, a big rig truck. That's it. Just one big truck. There wasn't any security, nor signage indicating the reason why such a huge portion of a public parking lot was shut down. Here's a snapshot of the truck and the huge empty lot:

Closing off a huge section, especially on the weekend is not a great idea. Surfers park there, beachgoers with family parks there, and it's used as an overflow lot for the Beach Chalet. If Outside Lands has no purpose of blocking off a huge portion of a parking lot, open it up for the public and shut it down when you truly need the space.

Reckless Driving at Ocean Beach Parking Lot

When I have to drive my car to work, I normally drive downhill going past the historic Cliff House and along Great Highway (southbound), and always pass by the large parking lots for the people wanting to enjoy the beach. The segment I am talking about today is the Ocean Beach/Great Highway parking lot nearest to Balboa & Great Highway.

One of the issues I regularly see is when drivers decide to skip the stop sign at Balboa by taking the turn-off before Balboa to enter the parking lot, drive straight through at full speed (speed limit on Great Highway is 35) and take the parking lot exit that continues along southbound Great Highway (basically, taking an illegal shortcut).

If you remember your driver's education, driving in a parking lot is limited to 10 MPH (please correct me if I'm wrong) and that's because of many people walking around the lot loading and unloading their cars, and the risk of vehicles slowly backing out of their space.

By speeding in a parking lot, and using it as a shortcut to avoid skipping the stop sign at Balboa, it could be considered reckless driving as defined by the California Vehicle code, section 23103(b):

"(b) A person who drives a vehicle in an offstreet parking facility, as defined in subdivision (c) of Section 12500, in willful or wanton disregard for the safety of persons or property is guilty of reckless driving."

Something needs to be done to stop people from taking this shortcut, and the possible risk of a person getting hit and killed or getting into a car wreck. Since the lot seriously needs new parking stall stripes, can they also install some speed bumps?

To make it visually understanding of what I'm talking about, I've used Google's street view to help me out:

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This is the entrance to the parking lot if a driver is going southbound and just recently passed the Cliff House. I see drivers decide to cut through the parking lot at this point to avoid the stop sign at Balboa (below).


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This is the stop sign location at Balboa & Great Highway. Since there is nothing ordering drivers to stop if they drive in the parking lot, they just go full speed just to save themselves a few seconds.


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The blue car in the middle is yielding to approaching traffic. Many who decide to shortcut just bolts right through if there's light traffic and gets away with it.

Clipper Card Paying for SF's Parking Lots Could Cause Legal Trouble

SF Appeal and the Examiner posted reports about the Clipper card being being used for a pilot program to pay for certain San Francisco MTA owned garages at the following locations: Mission-Bartlett, Japan Center, North Beach, Performing Arts, and Vallejo.

It sounds like a great idea, extend the usage of the electronic fare card beyond public transit to pay for other items like parking lots, street meters, and maybe even your Slurpees and nachos.

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But here lies the problem... I can easily forecast a major legal issue Clipper, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, and the SFMTA must resolve prior to starting this program: Commuter benefit programs.


What's Commuter Benefits?
You might be familiar with commuter benefit programs, the employer enrolls with a commuter benefit company to issue out passes, vouchers, and debit cards for the employee to take public transit or use designated parking lots that would provide a pre-taxed savings that could save a person up to 40% (average is 20%). Depending on a person's salary and how much is needed to pay for transit and/or parking, the savings can be significant.

Clipper's e-cash, e-tickets, and e-passes can be purchased using commuter benefits programs. They can be automatically added on a monthly basis, submit a paper voucher to designated in-person add value locations, and debit cards can be used at transit agency ticket offices, Clippercard.com, and automated add value machines.

It is my understanding of the commuter benefit programs that there are some restrictions on the proper usage of the funds. One detail I have learned is Clipper is not legally allowed to issue cash refunds to those passengers who cancels their Clipper card and if ever their card e-cash funds was paid with commuter benefits (just a penny in the e-cash purse from commuter benefits voids the right to a refund).

Commuter benefits can pay for parking as long as "parking at or near your work location or at or near a location from which you commute by car pool, commuter highway vehicle or mass transit" (ASI Flex).


It brings up a big question, can pre-taxed funds on a Clipper card be legally used for parking in San Francisco's garages?
That really depends... yes, a person who commutes to and from work and pays for their parking with commuter benefits are entitled to it, but how about those who uses the lots for a leisurely purpose, like paying the J-Town lot so the person can see a movie at Sundance Kabuki?

I have never heard of the SFMTA allowing their parking meter cards to be paid with commuter benefit vouchers, so how can a Clipper card funded with commuter benefits be allowed to pay for the garages?

Also, how can the system tell if a passenger is using it for a lawful purpose (parking to go to work) versus a non-commute purpose?


Let's also throw another wrench into the problem...
Clipper's potential could be extended to even more usage beyond public transit and parking, say purchasing groceries or buying a burger at a fast food restaurant.

The Octopus card in Hong Kong has grown so successful, you can buy food at McDonald's, get groceries, buy baked goods, and other unique products and services that are not transit or parking related.

This brings up a new legal challenge for Clipper... commuter benefit programs cannot pay for anything other than transit and parking.

It would likely be if items were to be purchased from a Clipper account, it would come directly from the e-cash purse. E-cash is the term used for the universal electronic funds that currently pays the fares for transit if a passenger does not have a valid pass.

Also, the source of funding for the e-cash purse can come from two ways, paid directly from the customer or paid in pre-taxed commuter benefits. By funding e-cash with pre-taxed commuter benefits, it makes the e-cash fund toxic and restricts the Clipper user's right to only use the card to pay for transit and parking. Just like I mentioned earlier, once the e-cash purse is funded with just a cent of commuter benefits, a passenger is not entitled to a refund if they cancel their card.

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Solutions?
If my analysis is true and correct, there will have to be a solution in place prior to the start of the SFMTA parking garage pilot program.

For those who funds their e-cash purse with transit benefits (assuming Clipper does not want to issue two cards: one for lawful transit purposes and the other for pleasure), there may need to be more than one e-cash purse maintained in the account. One purse would be used for commuter benefits funds while the general e-cash purse is funded through a person's out-of-pocket expenses. When riding transit, the commuter benefits purse is used first, and when depleted, the general e-cash purse is used.

But what to do with the commuter benefit funds right now? Many people have an e-cash purse that is mixed with both out-of-pocket cash and commuter benefits. If Clipper has to create two purses, how will they sort-out the mixed e-cash purse issue?