San Francisco rolls out new smart parking meters with 'demand-responsive pricing'
By Donald Melanson 
posted August 7th 2010 10:10AM
posted August 7th 2010 10:10AM
San Francisco has been working on making parking "smarter" for quite a while now, and it's just recently taken another big step in that direction by starting to replace over 5,000 older parking meters with the snazzy new model pictured above. Those will not only let you pay with a credit or debit card (and soon a special SFMTA card), but automatically adjust parking rates based on supply and demand, which means you could pay anywhere from $0.25 to $6.00 an hour depending on how many free spaces there are. Those rates are determined with the aid of some sensors that keep a constant watch on parking spaces, which also means you'll be able to check for free spaces in an area on your phone or your computer before you even leave the house. Hit up the link below for the complete details, and to check if the neighborhoods you frequent are included in the initial rollout.
From what I've read, but isn't mentioned on the SFPark website, the worst part about this is that since the spaces detect if a car is in them, the meter resets to 0 when the car leaves. In a normal meter you can benefit from the previous parker overpaying, but not with these.
SF will do anything to make a buck. They say it will lower prices during certain times, but I'm sure no lower than what they are now. Prices will just go up and up.
@Greyhound Actually I was wrong...I had seen this mentioned in articles a while back, but hidden at the bottom of their FAQ is this exact question and they say it won't happen. We'll see though, I don't trust them.
Hey San Fran. Welcome to 2003. Toronto's had solar powered "smart" meters for about that long now.
So basically it's just an automated price gouging system. Neat.
So, can I assume that these A) call a meter maid if the sensor detects are car with zero time left, and B) reset their time to zero when a car pulls away?
Ahhh Big Govt always find a way to nickel and dime you to death. If only they could do what people do when they are over budget....cut spending!!!
Those first scenes of "Cool Hand Luke" come to mind.
I can't wait to see how this whole parking system gets hacked...
It's time to roll out some crowbars and spray paint.
I bet the asshole that thought of this idea has a reserved parking spot where they work and make a ton of money.
(YAWN) this has been done already in Philadelphia.
I am totally willing to pay more since I'll be able to use my phone to find a fricken' parking space. That alone is totally worth it.
I will admit that I do not approve the variable charge rates for parking... but $6/hr is nothing compared to some of the rates charged out in Los Angeles... and also... many places here charge by the MINUTE... not hour. which really sucks even more.
Woa $6 a day! Might as well go and park at an garage.
If the city you live in like new york has a great mass transit system then owning a car is a luxury not a need thus you should have to pay more to enjoy it.
@rocker182
In New Your, there's the Subway and Taxi's and Buses everywhere, but once you leave New York, most of the country is NOT like that. Personally even though I live under a hour away from S.F, I avoid that City that the Plague that it is!!! It's been many years since I was last there, that was only because by brother got hit by a Car at night walking in a crosswalk and so I had to go to the Hospital there. Oh wait, Second to last time, the last time I took the ferry there with my Grandma. That was a couple years ago. It was Fleet Week and she wanted to see the Blue Angles. Of course being S.F they're now against Fleet Week. What's new.
This certainly could be costly...
I usually take a train going into San Francisco, now this means it'll be even harder to get a seat with everyong flocking to avoid costly parking meters. Dang!
How come I have a feeling that those Parking spaces will be leaning much closer to the $6 a hour most all of the time! I can almost bet you'll NEVER see them spaces at 25 cents, that's a good one.
@JBDragon
shhhhhh keep quite pretty sure SF City doesn't want to go into details lol...yeah there will be 25cent parking at 12 midnight after all stores are closed and between 9am-7pm pretty sure it's going to cost you $6 to park..the whole reason they are implementing these meters is due to the already high demand of the parking spots...
I don't think auto-scalping parking meters are what people want from their cities. I can see having variable rates that are predictable and publicized in advance, but to pull into a spot and not know beforehand what the price will be within a 24-to-1 range seems unfair. I could see this actually hurting retail business in areas where it's implemented.
Love some of the idea like checkinf for parking spaces online but I've always questioned why we are paying to park our cars on streets that we have already paid for 10 times over.
at the end of the day it's just another revenue scheme dubbed to a fancy title to justify the means...It will eventually not detour traffic/parking; people that need to park will be forced to pay the inflated prices and adjust their expenses accordingly..IE> avoid buying Starbucks coffee to pay for parking..Here in NYC they keep raising and raising tolls to keep people from driving but it never does it just makes people allocated more of their budgets to paying tolls and less of their money for other expenses...
Another page taken out of the for-profit playbook by municipal governments. With deeper and deeper deficits the call of "if people will pay it, why not?"
The bottom line is that modern, dense urban areas will never be able to accommodate the number of possible vehicle drivers during high use times. If you're still shocked or frustrated at "how bad" rush hour traffic can be, you've missed the boat entirely.
With many cities contemplating a London-style "city core" pay-to-enter area, it'll be interesting to see how different cities go about taxing self-transportation.
"Prices will be adjusted once a month, never by more than 50 cents." (1:50 minute mark on the video on the SFpark site.). Doesn't say anything about prices being adjusted "automatically". Adjusting prices based on a month's demand seem silly as we know parking demand fluctuates during the day.
The parking meter in that picture is the same one we have here in Laguna Beach, but I don't think these ones have the price-changing feature. Plus, parking's free after 7:00pm, so I genuinely can't even think of the last time I slid my card into one of those.
In terms of the price of parking, $6.00 per hour is not really that much. In the central business district in Los Angeles, the parking maxes out at between $36 and $39 - even after validation if you've stayed more than 3 or 4 hours. That said, you're looking at at least $9.00 an hour.
Parking is expensive; but I'd just prefer an honest, up-front tax rise. Raise my taxes by 5-10% and just stop with the outrageous speeding tickets and parking tariffs, deal?
Why are they using stupid coin-op parking meters to begin with? Stupid things don't give any benefit to smaller cars and require change. Modern cities have centralized parking meters that accept credit cards and issue receipts.
F*cked up sh*t !!!! Another reason no to go to SF, hope they chock on that money, Bloody Bastards! Peninsula is sunny and Waay more reasonable! :)
$6/hour parking is terrible, but parking meters that are $6/hour sometimes, and $.25 other times is just unethical. There should be posted rates for certain hours.