Limit to preying on city drivers?
A few days later bike guy/Supervisor David Chiu tells the Chronicle's Rachel Gordon that he's asked the City Attorney to draft legislation to require the MTA to create a system to notify people of the danger of getting their cars towed: "We need to find smart and affordable ways to use technology to help people follow the rules in San Francisco's difficult parking environment."
Good to hear a city official acknowledging that City Hall has created a "difficult parking environment" for everyone who has to drive in the city, even as the city prepares to take away all the street parking on Masonic Avenue between Geary and Fell to make bike lanes, which Chiu thinks is a great idea.
Maybe City Hall is beginning to realize that they've gone overboard in soaking city drivers, since they already extract more than $180 million a year from drivers from parking meters, parking tickets, and parking fees, not to mention the $70-80 million a year the city gets in sales taxes for transportation projects (page 14 in this document).
Even with all that transportation income, Muni has a $24 million deficit, and the city is asking voters to okay a $248 million bond on the November ballot to pave our streets!
Labels: Anti-Car, City Government, David Chiu, Ed Reiskin, Masonic Avenue, Muni, Parking, SF Chronicle, Traffic in SF
posted by Rob Anderson @ 2:34 PM
13 comments
13 Comments:
Can't find a picture of a car being towed in SF? Must not happen that often.
You bike dudes really should read the story linked before you comment.
You mean the one where the guy was lazy and decided not to look for "No Parking" signs then bitches when he gets a ticket? I read it.
You should really stop stealing pictures,or at least source them.
You should kiss my ass, too.
I was referring to the fact Gordon reported: 150-160 cars are towed every day in the city, and drivers have to pay ransom of $450 to get their cars back.
If they really wanted to raise revenues, they should start ENFORCING THE TRAFFIC LAWS. And not just on cars, but also on bikes and maybe even on pedestrians.
There hasn't been any enforcement of traffic laws for so many years in this city, that I think half the people don't even know what the rules are. Why bother to learn them, if there's no penalty for breaking them?
A lot of the problems we have on our streets -- even most of the problems Rob attributes to cyclists -- would vanish if people started obeying the traffic laws. And I'm cynical enough to think that vigorous enforcement is the only way to get people to do so.
"since they already extract more than $180 million a year from drivers from parking meters, parking tickets, and parking fees"
Bargain.
"...the problems Rob attributes to cyclists..."
Beyond the bad behavior of individual cyclists on city streets, the problem with cyclists is their political influence in getting City Hall to pursue anti-car policies that threaten to make traffic worse for everyone but cyclists.
Those policies include a predator/prey relationship between City Hall and everyone that drives in San Francisco. The towing numbers reported in the Chronicle article I linked are remarkable: 150 vehicles towed every day means 54,750 vehicles towed a year at a cost to their owners of $450 dollars.
This is in addition to more than $180 million from parking meters, parking tickets, and parking lots.
Yet, with encouragement from the SF Bicycle Coalition, the city is relentlessly making it harder to drive here by removing street parking and limiting parking in new housing developments.
440,000 parking spaces with 150 tows. That is 0.03%.
Spoken like a true bike nut. To City Hall the towing predation is a source of revenue, like parking tickets in general.
0.03% of cars are towed. Revenue source? Mountain out of molehill, per usual from you Rob.
Car traffic is so bad and the drivers are unable and unwilling to obey the traffic laws that SF has been forced to place two or three traffic control officers at each intersection between 5th and Market and 2nd and Market for the last two weeks during rush hour. How much does this cost the city per day?
@Anon, they weren't there on Weds and of course 3rd was backed up and Muni was forced to wait through several light cycles to cross Market.
I don't want the revenue - I just want anyone so stupid that they can't read a NO PARKING TOW AWAY sign to LEAVE. They are dragging us all down with them. Stupid people are welcome in Mississippi.
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