Parking Quiz Answer: SF Cars vs. Parking Spaces. Who Wins?

Just before lunch, parking maniac David LaBua, author of Finding the Sweet Spot, asked you who would win in a fight: the number of cars in SF vs. the number of parking spaces?

The number of street parking spaces (including meters) in SF

or.......

The number of registered cars in San Francisco?

Says David: The most recent public data I obtained shows that there are:

379,898 cars registered in San Francisco
and…
320,000 street parking spaces (including meters) in SF

But wait…there’s more. That number is just cars. There are also 61,755 trucks, 20,144 motorcycles, and 8,536 trailers registered in San Francisco, bringing the total number of registered vehicles in SF to 470,333.

And that’s not all.
Each day there is an increase of approximately +35,400 vehicles in San Francisco during the daytime hours monday through Friday, bringing the grand total to:

505,733 vehicles
and
320,000 street parking spaces

There was a recent UC study showing that approximately 1/3 of all downtown San Francisco traffic is from vehicles circling looking for a parking place. But we San Franciscans, being the pioneers and innovators that we are, scoff at the old paradigm logic that tells us “You can’t put 10 pounds of cars into a 5 pound bag.”

If you consciously employ several parking strategies simultaneously, whenever you look for parking, it isn’t that difficult. Really. That’s why I wrote the book.

To see some of these parking strategies, tips, tricks and secrets, click here.

View the discussion thread.

always enjoy david's comment they make me smile i'm not that fond of the parking situation in sf either but if you breathe you and thank the little things it isn't too bad

By joe orrach (not verified) on February 18, 2011

I've lived in the city for two years and parking isn't really THAT bad if you know how to read parking signs. AND I lived on both 19th street at once and Geary the next. Enjoyed the stats, love reading this shit.

By Lincoln! (not verified) on February 07, 2011

All the more reason not to own a car - not necessary in SF!

By Katie (not verified) on February 07, 2011

EB, thanks for the kind words and support, you can ride shotgun with me anytime.

Malcom, I've got statistics coming out of my ears, but always try to lay them out in digestible ways. I really appreciate your curious mind – your question is a logical one and is exactly where my mind went when writing this post. Here’s a glimpse of my thought process…

…okay, 320,000 on-street spaces...now let’s also include the off-street spaces. There are about 72,000 off street spaces downtown…that makes it 505,733 vehicles and 392,000 possible spaces. Now if I include off-street non-downtown parking like in private garages in homes, and other garages, that’s close to 200,000 more...but, what about all of those garages listed in the county records as garages, but are now used as storage space or have been converted to living space, should they be counted? Hmm. Then I suppose I have to add the other vehicles on the streets that add to the traffic situation, but don’t ever really park…so I now have to add 460 diesel busses, 40 cable cars, 151 light rail vehicles, and 331 trolley busses. Now, what about the 58 taxi zones? Taxis can park there, but we can't. Which then brings us to the amount of actual time that's unavailable to park in each spot, like on street sweeping times, or during commuter hours, now I have to divide the number of those spots by 1/24 for each hour each spot is unavailable. and subtract it from the total number of spots.........

Then I received an email from my editor, asking if my post was ready for this week...ha ha…and I decided to keep it neat and clean, and adopt the less is more philosophy for this week.

I wrote my parking guide precisely because, like you, I’m ridiculously curious about this stuff. In the Appendix, I've included just about every number about the streets of San Francisco that you would ever want to know. Pick up a copy, if you’re interested.

Thanks for writing, but, please Malcolm....stop calling me Shirley (with a fond nod to Leslie Nielsen). ☺

Good Luck Parking!

David

By David LaBua (not verified) on February 07, 2011

Lazy comment Malcolm. This guy's statistics are always interesting. I'm grateful for the info he shares and his unique take on it. Oh, and, by the way, I think you got a little "lazy" and forgot to close your parentheses Mr. Kettle.

By EB (not verified) on February 06, 2011

Lazy stats on this one. Surely you have to also include the number of private garages and parking lots (especially when counting out-of-town traffic

By malcolm (not verified) on February 04, 2011