[Editor’s note: The final Parking Summit meeting was in February 2012. These Parking Issues pages were created between June 2008 and February 2012, so some of the information presented here may now be obsolete. Sadly, the parking problem in the Excelsior District remains and, if anything, is even worse than it was in 2008. Despite the many hours of effort put into the Parking Summits by community activists, there was very little followup on the part of The City, and little was accomplished to alleviate the problem. Politicians paid lip service to the issue but it was one they and The City’s bureaucracy regarded it as a “hot potato” and were unwilling to wrap their hands around. In addition, there was considerable opposition to any change of any sort in the neighborhood, and in the end most of the proponents of the summits simply gave up. I’m leaving these pages related to the Parking Summits in place as a historical footnote. [ed. December 2012].

Parking has become increasingly problematic in many San Francisco neighborhoods over the last couple of decades. The problems include a shortage of parking spaces, sidewalk parking, blocked driveways, unused or unusable garages, fleet parking, oversize vehicle parking, abandoned cars, and more. Most of us probably have at least one pet peeve on the subject of parking, and emotions often run high.

Unfortunately, outside of the rules and regulations posted on the state and city and county web sites, there is very little documentation available which addresses the problem of parking in San Francisco, or anywhere else for that matter. See the References page for links to the state and city and county web sites, as well as links to other sources of information.

Please note that the web pages presented here are not intended to serve as an authoritative reference about parking problems in San Francisco or the rules and regulations affecting motor vehicles and parking at either the state or city and county levels. However, it is hoped that these pages will at least answer some common questions about parking in the city and will serve as a starting point for further discussion of the parking problem within our community.

Please note also that the state and city and county codes shown on the California Motor Vehicle Codes and San Francisco Motor Vehicle Codes pages are listed in ascending order of section number. Chapter and Section numbers usually represent a logical grouping of codes, but their order does not imply some specific way that vehicle and parking codes should be viewed.