Shared cars eye slice of SF street parking

On-street parking spaces for car-sharing in San Francisco could see an uptick starting in September if a two-year pilot project gets approved by The City’s transportation agency board in June.

The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, which will oversee the pilot, would allow car-sharing companies like City CarShare and Zipcar to reserve 150 on-street parking spaces each and an additional 150 spaces the following the year.

Peer-to-peer car services — which allow individuals to rent out their privately owned vehicles through companies such as Getaround and Wheelz — will also be eligible participate in the two-year pilot.

Companies who want to take part in the on-street parking pilot must make their vehicles available at hourly rates or less. The SFMTA wants to avoid daylong or weekly usage vehicles so that the vehicles are available to as many customers as possible.

Vehicles will need to be made available 75 percent of time for users. Each company must have at least 15 percent of their spaces in outer neighborhoods of The City.

The companies must also provide the SFMTA with quarterly data on their total members by zip code, trip information such as the day, time, start and end of all trip locations, and average usage of vehicles.

The fees car-sharing companies will pay for each space vary by location. For example, a parking space in the Sunset and Richmond districts will cost $50 per month, while a space in the downtown area will cost $225 per month.

Director of Transportation Ed Reiskin said pilot the would the increase the visibility of car-sharing throughout The City, which could encourage more people to use their services.

A goal of the pilot is to reduce car ownership in the City, which in turn will reduce parking demand and congestion in neighborhoods, said Reiskin.

SFMTA includes off-street locations for car-sharing at its parking lots, but those are disappearing because of redevelopment projects, said the transit agency. Many of those spaces may not get replaced.

The pilot will run from September 1 through August 30, 2015. The SFMTA will decide whether to continue the on-street program when the pilot is over.

Jerold Chinn

Jerold serves as a reporter and San Francisco Bureau Chief for SFBay covering transportation and occasionally City Hall and the Mayor's Office in San Francisco. His work on transportation has been recognized by the San Francisco Press Club. Born and raised in San Francisco, he graduated from San Francisco State University with a degree in journalism. Jerold previously wrote for the San Francisco Public Press, a nonprofit, noncommercial news organization. When not reporting, you can find Jerold taking Muni to check out new places to eat in the city.