Parking Meter Pilot Coming to Dogpatch

Parking Meter Pilot Coming to Dogpatch
By Phillip Pierce

A small but exciting pilot project at parking meters on Indiana Street in the Dogpatch is starting Monday, November 9. For the past couple of years, all metered surface parking lots have been equipped with “pay-by-license-plate” functionality. Now we want to test the “pay-by-license plate” function for on-street parking meters as well.

The only change is that you’ll enter your plate number instead of a parking space number. Drivers may PayByPhone or at the multi-space paystation, just like always. Nothing will change about the forms of payment accepted: drivers will still be able to pay with coins, credit/debit or SFMTA parking card.  

Here are the benefits:

• You can pay at any paystation on the block, even if it’s across the street. So drivers may head in the direction of their destinations, pay at the nearest meter, and be on their way. 
• If you pay for parking but have to leave early, you may return to the same block and park without having to pay again, as long as you are within the original time frame you paid for.

For the SFMTA, we are using this pilot to test if the system can help:

• Streamline enforcement, allowing parking control officers more time to focus on safety issues like double-parking and neighborhood concerns including Residential Permit Parking enforcement
• Remove the need for space numbers and markings on the street that are costly to install and maintain
• Allow for more vehicles to fit on each block when space markings are removed
• Reduce the number of meters needed, freeing up sidewalk space and saving the cost of installation and maintenance

Example of signs to be installed in the pilot area explain how to pay and provide a zone number.

Location and Privacy Details

The pilot is planned for Indiana in part because multi-space paystations already exist between Mariposa and Cesar Chavez streets on the on the following address blocks: 600, 800, 900, 1000, 1100 and 1500.  We plan to install permanent metal signs on the pilot blocks to indicate that customers must enter their license plate to pay, and temporary signs in the early stages of the pilot to notify drivers of the new payment process.

To connect payments with plates for enforcement purposes while preventing anyone from tracking specific plates, we will be masking license plate numbers in our database so that only a limited number of characters from each license plate will be stored.

How to Pay-by-license plate at a Paystation:

• Enter license plate number at the closest or most convenient pay station
• Choose the amount of parking time
• Pay with coins, credit/debit or SFMTA parking card

How to Pay Using a Smartphone

• Download or open the Pay-By-Phone app
• Enter zone number found on nearby meters or pay stations
• If it’s your first time in the app, enter your license plate number
• Choose the amount of parking time
• Pay with credit/debit or SFMTA parking card
• You can extend your meter time through the app, if needed

How to Pay Over the Phone 

• Call the number posted on signage
• Respond to the prompts
  
  • Existing users will be prompted to enter the 4- or 5-digit location number, license plate number and parking time required
  • New users will be guided through a registration process
• Pay with credit/debit or SFMTA parking card
• Extend your parking by calling the same number

 How to Pay Online

• Visit the PayByPhone website
• Create a PayByPhone account and use it to pay for parking.
• Enter location number, license plate number, and amount of parking time
• Pay with credit/debit or SFMTA parking card
• Extend your parking by visiting the website again

Published November 07, 2020 at 02:24AM
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Vision Zero - Safety It’s Your Turn: Funding Opportunity for Community Based Organizations Around Traffic Safety Education and Outreach

Vision Zero - Safety It’s Your Turn: Funding Opportunity for Community Based Organizations Around Traffic Safety Education and Outreach
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In San Francisco, left-turns are one of the top three crash factors in severe and fatal collisions for people walking and biking. In 2019, almost 40% of all traffic fatalities in the city involved a left-turning vehicle. To encourage safer behavior, the SFMTA is announcing the Vision Zero Safety – It’s Your Turn Community Grant opportunity for community-based organizations (CBO) to share traffic safety information that compliments street changes.

Speed is the most dangerous factor when turning left. At 30 mph, a person is twice as likely to die if hit by a car. That’s why in October 2020, the SFMTA announced (pdf link) the Left-Turn Traffic Calming Projects and the Safety—It’s Your Turn campaign. Left-Turn Traffic Calming Projects place traffic calming devices such as painted safety zones, delineators, and left-turn guide bumps at street intersections in order to reduce the speed at which a car can make a left-turn.

The Safety—It’s Your Turn campaign is a traffic safety education campaign designed to raise awareness about the dangers of unsafe left turns, to promote better driving behavior and to encourage walking and bicycling. In October, street teams began conducting door-to-door merchant and resident outreach, car-to-car outreach and posting Safe-Spot posters around the Left-Turn Calming Projects.

An outreach worker puts up a poster Safety – It’s Your Turn poster. 

To complement the Safety—It’s Your Turn campaign’s citywide outreach starting January 2021, the SFMTA is announcing a grant opportunity for community-based organizations (CBO) to conduct traffic safety education and outreach within the community. The Safety – It’s Your Turn Community Grant includes up to three $20,000-$30,000 grant awards and up to four awards between $10,000-$20,000.

The SFMTA recognizes that CBOs are often closer to the communities they serve, have a better understanding of community needs and are better positioned to share relevant health and safety messaging with their communities. The SFMTA is awarding up to seven funding opportunities to CBOs in the form of community grants to share information related to safer left-turn driving behavior and encouraging walking and bicycling with historically underserved communities in San Francisco. CBOs currently providing emergency COVID-response and serving Black, Indigenous, People of Color, the disabled, the unhoused, elderly, youth and/or non-English speaking communities are encouraged to apply. Transportation experience is not necessary!

Community Grants Key Dates

• Informational Meeting: November 10, 2020. Register here for the Information Session!
• Application Deadline: November 20, 2020
• Applicants Notified: December 2020
• Grant Kick-Off Meeting: January 2021
• Project Implementation January 2021-March 2021Final Project reporting: April 2021

More information on the grant application, terms and FAQ can be found here.

For any questions regarding the Safety It’s Your Turn campaign or the Community Grants, please email VisionZeroSFLeftTurns@sfmta.com

Published November 06, 2020 at 07:20AM
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Slow Streets Takes it to the Streets

Slow Streets Takes it to the Streets
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As the Slow Streets program develops plans for its fourth phase, the team is headed directly to historically under-served neighborhoods to conduct outreach. Most of the current Slow Streets have come from community suggestions from the over 6,500 responses to our online questionnaire. For this next phase, the program will go to those neighborhoods that don’t yet have Slow Streets to see if there is interest and support.

Map of Slow Streets showing the seven neighborhoods where conversations with residents will determine if there is interest and support for Slow Streets corridors there.

Looking at the questionnaire responses received, we heard a lot from residents in some neighborhoods and very little from others.   While there were many great suggestions for Slow Streets, including some that aren’t yet implemented, we want to improve the process for a more equitable citywide program that is representative of the city as a whole.

From Tuesday, November 10 through Thursday, December 10, the Slow Streets team will take to the streets and engage residents on a neighborhood planning level for the next phase of Slow Streets. The team will be working with stakeholders in:

• Western Addition
• SoMa
• Inner Sunset
• Oceanview/Parkside
• Outer Mission
• Visitacion Valley
• Bayview

Throughout the month staff will talk to residents in each of these neighborhoods to share what Slow Streets are and find out about whether residents would like Slow Streets in their community. Additionally, the SF Parks Alliance will help broaden our outreach and engage with neighbors that we’ve yet to hear from, utilizing local knowledge to empower communities and develop solutions that respond to the unique needs of each neighborhood. Several suitable candidates for Slow Streets in each neighborhood have been identified preliminarily, and we’ll be collecting feedback through area-specific online questionnaires, community meetings, limited physically distant on-the-ground outreach with residents and live online office hours. Following the month-long community input process, SFMTA staff will prepare corridors for review and approval of the fourth phase of Slow Streets at the MTA Board of Directors in early 2021. For more information on our Slow Street Program please visit our project page.

What is Slow Streets?

Slow Streets is a temporary, emergency response program designed to limit through traffic on certain residential streets and allow them to be used as a shared space for people traveling by foot and by bicycle. Throughout the city, 25 corridors have been implemented as Slow Streets. On these Slow Streets, signage and barricades have been placed to minimize through traffic and prioritize walking and bicycling. The goal of the Slow Streets program is to provide more space for physically distant essential travel and exercise during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Published November 05, 2020 at 06:32AM
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