San Francisco residents seeing uptick in citations for blocking sidewalks when they park
SAN FRANCISCO— People who live in some San Francisco neighborhoods said they're getting parking tickets lately — for parking their cars in their own driveways.
The citation say the cars are spilling over into the sidewalk, but many of the owners say they've been parking that way for years,
"I was thinking am I going to wake up with a ticket in the front," David Cho said about his car.
Cho regularly house sits in the Inner Sunset. He said he's in a neighborhood group message and people have been talking about an uptick in citations.
Cho has parked sideways up against the home's garage for years. The car is technically on the sidewalk, because the home doesn't have much of a driveway. He said he does leave room for pedestrians to walk by, but he's concerned it may not be enough.
"This is my electric car, and I park it here because the charger is on this side and then I can run a line here to charge my car," Cho said. "If I park it out there (on the street) then the line would be on the sidewalk and I don't want people to be tripping on it."
Throughout the inner sunset neighborhood, dozens of cars are hanging over the sidewalk.
Someone who lives in the Richmond District took to "X" to complain about a citation they received for parking in their driveway but blocking part of the sidewalk
The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency responded, saying not being cited before isn't a guarantee you won't be cited in the future. The SFMTA also said there is a renewed effort to better address sidewalk parking in SF.
Near 9th Avenue and Moraga Street, someone put up a sign asking people not to call the Department of Transportation to ticket cars parked in driveways. It suggests leaving a note asking someone to park differently first.
"I think if you live in the neighborhood you should be a little a little more friendly and neighborly to our neighbors," Cho said. "I think you don't have to go for the kill, just talk to the person."
Linda Messitt doesn't have a car, but lives in the neighborhood and frequently walks her dog, Harrison.
"When we walk in a group, we're going up to meet our friends to walk all our dogs together and you're going around you end up in the street," Messitt said. "It's a pain sometimes. I think it would be a bigger issue if I had kids and you're trying to get a group of children and you don't want to walk into the street to get around a car."
Cho said he thinks this law needs to be enforced on a case-by-case basis.
"Things need to make sense, regulations and rules to make sense," Cho said "If a rule doesn't make sense anymore why should there be a rule? I think what makes sense is people with strollers and dogs should be able to get through and I think that's enough space."
SFMTA has an online guide the explains how to legally park in San Francisco.
