Progress on expanded parking meters
Nobody likes to pay extra for parking, but Rescue Muni applauds the SFMTA for taking the hard steps to expand meter coverage to commercial areas around San Francisco to help cover the increasing cost of running Muni, and taking comments at Friday’s administrative hearing. San Francisco voters have repeatedly approved the Transit-First policy that clearly makes mass transit and alternatives to cars the top priority for the SFMTA – and in difficult economic times like this, expanded meters (and expanded meter hours) are a very good way to raise revenue to prevent service cuts, and also to promote higher turnover in commercial corridors. SF Streetsblog also has coverage.
If you agree that expanded parking meters are a better solution than service cuts (understanding that Muni also needs to get its fiscal house in order, hence the Fix Muni Now amendment on the streets now), contact the SFMTA Board and tell them you support this plan!
Voters have repeatedly approved Transit-First? I am not even sure what “transit-first†means and I am a supporter of public transit. Unfortunately, the majority of SF voters seems to be voting with their feet (or seat in the car) and do not appear to be placing transit first.
Rescue Muni should stop making automobile drivers the enemy. Punishing drivers will not improve Muni. Rescue Muni should not even mention automobiles in the same breath as improving Muni.
Giving Muni more money does not seem to make it any better either. Nevertheless, expanded meters may make sense for other reasons.
Auto drivers aren’t “the enemy” – many of us also drive cars but just want better transit service, and transit service costs money.
As background, the Transit-First Policy is part of the City Charter, approved at least three times by voters (in the 1970s when it was created, and in 1999 and 2007 with Propositions E and A). This is now Charter section 8A.115. The text is at:
http://www.municode.com/content/4201/14130/HTML/ch008a.html
It is completely consistent with this policy to expand parking meters and use the money to fund mass transit.