Some people say the best neighborhoods in San Francisco are the ones with nice gardens, others say it’s where you can find organic lattes on every block. We say it’s where you don’t get fined!
If you live in SF and haven’t had a parking ticket in the last 6 months, you probably haven’t gone out enough. It’s understandable. I’d rather try to figure out who’s related to whom on Games of Thrones than decipher where I can park in SoMa.
The parking rules are so complex that it’s almost normal we get them wrong. Last time, we saw a red no-parking curb with a parking meter 😓 But let’s go back to our neighborhoods.
For two years now, we’ve been mapping out all of San Francisco’s parking spots for our parking app SpotAngels. We started to see trends in ticketing and decided to investigate. We crunched our data, combined it with available city data, and saw interesting patterns.
The worst neighborhoods to park in San Francisco
We were not surprised to discover that SoMa, Inner Richmond, and Mission are the neighborhoods that make the most from tickets with $11M, $10.5M, and $9.5M in parking tickets revenue respectively. But that’s not where you’re the most in danger.
Neighborhoods with the highest # of tickets issued per spot
FiDi and Downtown are leading when it comes to average tickets issued per spot available. These two locations average 10 and 11 tickets respectively per spot every year, meaning the chance of getting ticketed for a given spot is 50% higher than in SoMa.
Neighborhood with the most expensive tickets
And to add insult to injury, Downtown is also the area where you will pay the most if you get caught. Downtown is leading the way for the most expensive tickets, averaging a booming $108 per ticket. In second place we find SoMa, Inner Richmond and FiDi all standing at $106.
If it seems expensive, it’s because it is! San Francisco has the most expensive average ticket price in the country. In NYC, which comes 2nd, the highest average price of a ticket is $82 in the Upper East Side; that’s 25% cheaper than in Downtown SF.
Neighborhood with the cheapest tickets
So if you want cheap tickets in San Francisco, you’d better head to Outer Richmond with an average price of a ticket at $92 – but you’d still be way above the NYC average parking ticket ($71).
How can you avoid being fined?
Pay attention to street cleaning! This is the number one reason why people get tickets in San Francisco. The City issued almost 540,000 Street Cleaning tickets last year, at a value of $36,718,640.
Second place goes to Meter Violations with an outstanding $15,325,386 in yearly revenue, representing 17% of the total. The price of meter violations fluctuates between $68 and $78 depending on the area, with Downtown being the most expensive.
The third most issued ticket is Residential Overtime Parking, with 10% share of the total and revenue of $10,131,108.
If you want to avoid tickets, remember to set an alarm or get the SpotAngels app for automated reminders! Last year, SpotAngels saved SF drivers from 13,000 parking tickets representing a total value of over 1 million dollars.
Parking awards San Francisco 2017
And now, we give you the best and the worst of San Francisco.
🥁 *drum rolls* 🥁
Worst Spot to Park in San Francisco
The Worst Spot to Park in San Francisco goes to… 300 Townsend St.! The most common violation is parking in a Bus Zone. This ticket is priced at $288. So pay attention if you head to SoMa – especially on Thursday at 8 AM – it is by far the worst place to park in the city.
Worst Neighborhood to Park
The Worst Neighborhood to Park goes to the FiDi. Not only does it have the highest number of tickets per year per available spot, it also has the second highest average price per ticket and the top five most ticketed blocks! The fact that there are so many car-related crimes makes it even worse.
Best Neighborhood to Park
The Best Neighborhood to Park is awarded to Twin Peaks. It may be hard to find a spot there but when you do, you should be fine: the average Twin Peaks parking spot gets less than 1 ticket a year. Still, given the crime rate in the area, parking there might come at a cost…
If despite all our great graphics your head is still spinning, be reassured. There’s a simple way to avoid parking tickets. Use our app to know the amount you’re supposed to pay and when you’re supposed to leave. And who knows, maybe next year San Francisco’s yearly revenue in parking tickets will drop!
You can check out our methodology here.