As noted back in May, the SFMTA is currently unrolling a pilot program that reserves on-street parking spaces for car-sharing companies. Though still in the preliminary rollout phase, the program has gone from theory to practice, with some Hayes Valley on-street parking spots now taped off for car share use.
According to a recent map of the "phase 1" implementation of the pilot, there are a couple spots already implemented in the area (the blue dots), with more on the way soon (the grey dots). The map shows the citywide parking spots that have been dedicated to the pilot (defined by first letter of participating car share companies Getaround, Zipcar, and City CarShare), so take a look if you're wondering what's going on in all neighborhoods.
Here's how the Hayes Valley situation is shaping up:
According to Andy Thornley, Senior Project Analyst at the SFMTA, the Hayes Valley neighborhood will soon have:
- Two Zipcar pods (two cars at Ivy and Laguna and two cars on Linden between )
- Two City CarShare pods (one car at Octavia and Lily, and two cars on 11th off Market)
- One Getaround pod (one car at Octavia and Fell)
The first pod has already been installed on Linden Street, directly in front of Dark Garden. As you can see in the photo below, the two spots that have been reserved for car-sharing companies are outlined in white lines. A "no stopping except permitted car share vehicles" sign warns would-be street parkers away.
The pilot comes as the city seeks to "expand the availability of car sharing across San Francisco, increase the usage of car sharing, and preserve or increase choice of car share organizations."
According to Thornley:
"For each permitted pilot car share parking space, we’ll be monitoring availability (how much of the time a vehicle is available to members), unique users (how many different people are using the vehicle), how many times the vehicle is used, and VMT for each trip (how far did it go). We’ll also be monitoring enforcement problems (someone parking in the car share space and blocking the shared car when it comes back from a trip) and other operational aspects."
Though Thornley says the SFMTA doesn't have predefined thresholds for success for the pilot, it will review the data, analyze patterns and particulars, and make the case for a permanent on-street car share permit program if the data and analysis support it. "That will be a public deliberation, with public input, before any decision is made to 'operationalize' this concept," he told us.
For now, look for these eight neighborhood car share spots—and all citywide spots shown on the phase 1 map—to be in place by January, weather permitting.
