The notices might be part of an SFMTA service that allows residents to print their own warnings.
An Excelsior district San Francisco resident is so fed up with street parked cars taking up pedestrian sidewalk space that they’ve taken matters into their own hands.
According to a user submitted photo by @Dave_DoIt to the @ItsTheBay Instagram account, this resident’s been issuing parking notices printed out themselves.
Here’s the DIY ticket below.
The photo shows a parking ticket-sized piece of paper with example photos of two cars allegedly violating CVC 22500F in between a logo of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency in the header.
“This Vehicle is illegally parked,” the ticket says in capitalized, bold letters.
“California Vehicle Code Section 22500F prohibits the parking, stopping or standing of a vehicle on ANY portion of the sidewalk (property line to curb line). Parking on the sidewalk is a hazard to pedestrians and disabled individuals subject to fine.”
“(Note, citation amount is subject to change.)”
“This notice has been placed by a concerned citizen.”
The parking citation does cite an actual part of California’s Vehicle Code, however, the ticket does make clear that the police or parking authority did not place the ticket there.
Although I haven’t found the actual link, according to @trtl_bakes in the replies, this might be a pre-printed ticket provided by SFMTA themselves.
“People can print these from the SFMTA website,” his comment says. “When driveways are blocked, SFMTA gives the owner of the blocked driveway the option to have the car ticketed, towed, or to print and put one of these warning notices. If someone receives one of these notices,whoever’s driveway that was blocked had the option to have the car ticketed and or towed, and they chose to put a warning with no fees instead. Actually polite on the blocked driveway owners part.”
San Francisco residents and pedestrians who do come across cars blocking their right of way are encouraged to report it by calling 311 or online on the SFTMA website (linked here.)
You can also bring it up to your local government officials, like these NY residents did (story linked here) which led to a proposed bill that would allow NY residents to photograph police cars parked on sidewalks. The photos would lead to actual fines being doled out to the offending officers.
There’s also nothing stopping you from making a stink about it online, tagging the proper authorities, too.
Citizen citations might scare the offender for a second, but the rest of the ticket makes it clear no punishment is headed their way.
It’s best to skip the DIY tickets and bring it up to local authorities who can actually do something about it, instead.
