San Francisco Supervisor Alan Wong announced a plan to help add more parking spaces in the Sunset District, a neighborhood where Wong says residents rely more on driving to get from place to place compared to other areas in the city.
“One of the most frequent issues that I hear from residents and also small businesses in the neighborhood is that there is not enough parking,” Wong said in a briefing Friday. “In the Sunset, we don’t have as strong public transit as other locations. We also have many people that have families, seniors and children.”
Converting parallel parking spaces into angled or 90-degree spaces pointed toward curbs, Wong says, is a possible solution. Angled parking can add more parking spots along curbs versus parallel parking because cars parked at an angle use less space.
“I think the expansion of the angular or perpendicular parking in the neighborhood is a wonderful idea to expand it to those streets that have the capacity to do so,” said Liam Reidy, president of the United Irish Cultural Center, in a speech. “We have found at the Irish center that people coming to our events don’t face the same pressures because we have angular parking on Sloat Boulevard.”
At least two things have impacted parking in District 4, which Wong represents as supervisor. The city’s implementation of the state’s “daylighting” law, which makes it illegal to park within 20 feet of a crosswalk, has taken away parking spots as curbs are gradually painted red. Additionally, modifications to the L-Taraval Muni light-rail line by adding new pedestrian crossings and boarding islands on Taraval Street has also taken away many parking spaces.
Wong’s plan involves encouraging residents to submit petitions to the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency by helping them understand which streets are more suitable for angled parking. Residents will take it upon themselves to submit requests for angled parking.
“This will only be for the blocks where the residents request it,” Wong said. “Some blocks may want it, some blocks may not want it, and that’s completely OK.”
East-west streets are best bet
In December, Wong submitted a letter of inquiry to the SFMTA, asking the agency to review areas of opportunity where more parking spaces can be added.
Streets that run east to west, Wong said, have the greatest potential for angled parking since they are wider than those that run north to south.
“The SFMTA found that east-west streets in District 4 are most feasible because they are typically 50 feet wide, and they have longer curb spaces and they have fewer driveways, all of which make perpendicular parking safer and easier to implement,” Wong said.
To start the parking conversion process, the SFMTA requires a petition signed by the majority of households on a block in support of the proposal. Petitions can be submitted via a 311 request.
This process has already been available to residents, but few are aware that it exists, according to Wong.
“Currently there is a way for people to request parking, but it’s not very well known,” Wong said. “They may not know how to initiate it, or maybe challenging on their own, so we’ve put together an easy, simple process for them to increase parking.”
Wong’s office has created a template for a petition to gather signatures as well as a fact sheet with directions and more information.
SFMTA evaluates parking requests
Once a petition has been submitted, the SFMTA will start the review process followed by a public hearing with the SFMTA Board of Directors. Board approval is required and the process is estimated to take about three months, Wong said.
The SFMTA will evaluate submissions and determine whether the block can physically accommodate angled parking, meets safety requirements, and does not conflict with transit or bike infrastructure.
“This opportunity for us allows us to increase parking in a way that’s a win-win situation,” Wong said. “We’re using existing space without hurting any other modes of transit.”
Wong’s plan is not the first time that angled parking has been proposed in District 4.
“This opportunity for us allows us to increase parking in a way that’s a win-win situation. We’re using existing space without hurting any other modes of transit.”
Supervisor Alan Wong
In 2017, District 4 residents overwhelmingly rejected the SFMTA’s proposal to add angled parking to several streets adjacent to Taraval Street, which is a commercial corridor in the Sunset.
The SFMTA sent out ballots to residents living on streets located adjacent to or near Taraval Street, asking them if they would like to have angled or perpendicular parking replace parallel parking. Of the 25 street blocks asked, only one approved the proposed change.
But with additional loss of parking since that time due to the daylighting law and the renovated L-Taraval Muni line, Wong thinks that residents will be more open to adding more parking in their neighborhoods.
“There have been many areas where we have had a loss of parking in the city, including in the Sunset along Taraval and Irving streets,” Wong said. “That’s a huge concern for both of our residents and our small businesses to have parking accessibility.”
