For a polititcal moment, which I don’t often indulge in — I heard about this petition last night that is going around the city that is trying to get support for creating more parking spaces in San Francisco. Of course, the petition is geared to make this look like a good thing by noting how many more parking spaces there could be for residents. Apparently, the main effect of the movement would be to relax the constraints on current regulations that allow residents and developers to make claims for the need for additional parking in a particular neighborhood.
Unfortunately, the result of this movement being successful would mean sacrificing traffic lanes, bike lanes, and muni stops in order to squeeze more cars onto the road (note that this would double the effect of just removing traffic lanes, and cause delays or fewer runs of public transport per day). Having recently moved to San Francisco, two of the things that I think are great about the city are the abundant bike lanes and availability of public transportation. People have been dealing with constrained parking here for years and still love their city. If you see this petition, don’t sign it!