A proposal to put a one-hour limit on parking at broken parking meters failed at Tuesday’s San Francisco Municipal Transportation board meeting in a 3-3 vote. Currently drivers can park in a broken meter space for the posted time limit.
The San Francisco Examiner reports that the board proposed the idea as a way to cut down on repair costs because of motorists breaking meters to get free parking. Los Angeles recently banned parking at broken meters because of an increase in meter tampering. Executive Director Nathaniel Ford said the one-hour limit also would provide some consistency for parking control officers who face a challenge of working in different neighborhoods with different time limits.
Directors Jerry Lee and Cameron Beach were concerned about confusing drivers who park at a broken meter in a two-hour area.
“If I’m going out there to a restaurant and I park there and I think it’s a two hour meter, one hour later I’m going to get a citation,” said Lee.
Beach said if someone is going to a doctor’s appointment and parks in a broken meter, but the appointment takes longer than a hour, they would need to come back out to traffic and find another space.
“I just don’t think it’s an equitable solution to the issue,” said Beach.
Ford said he and his staff will work on a revised proposal.
