SFMTA crews replaced thousands of meters across the city with new ones that are easier to use.
We recently finished upgrading every single parking meter in San Francisco – covering about 26,700 spaces -- to make it easier for you to park your car anywhere in the city.
The new meters we installed through our Citywide Parking Meter Replacement Project:
- Make it easier to understand requirements and choose a payment option. Meters now have larger, brighter screens with more legible text and an intuitive user interface.
- Support customers who speak languages other than English. Meters now offer the option to see instructions in Simplified Chinese, Spanish and English.
- Reduce confusion around broken meters. Meters now have durable equipment that’s more resistant to vandalism. Now, it should be much more clear if a meter works.
Learn how our teams completed this work – and discover resources that can help as you drive and park around the city.
How our teams upgraded meters at about 26,700 spaces
One of the new single-space meters we installed across the city to make it easier to find and pay for parking.
We launched the Citywide Parking Meter Replacement Project in March 2022 to replace every parking meter in the city.
Our goal: make meters easier to use and maintain, and ensure they sync with the latest software.
The team
Crews included staff from across the Meter Shop:
- Parking meter repair technicians and supervisors
- Machinist supervisors
- Sign installers
- Traffic and street sign supervisors
- Analysts
- Painters
The approach
Our teams replaced about half of the former single-space meters with new, more user-friendly single-space meters produced by MacKay Meters. The company has been a leader in the parking meter industry for decades.
For the remaining areas, crews replaced single-space meters with multi-space pay stations. These pay stations feature an innovative pay-by-license-plate system. It streamlines the payment process and makes parking more convenient for residents and visitors. To learn more about where we installed multi-space pay stations, visit our Citywide Parking Meter Replacement Project webpage.
The process
Crews replaced these single-space meters with new ones that are more user-friendly.
To upgrade thousands of meters across the city, our Meter Shop teams worked together to make the process as efficient as possible.
One example: our maintenance staff assembled new meter hardware well ahead of planned installations. This way, crews in the field could quickly remove old meters and install new meters on several blocks at a time on the same day.
Our meter installers and sign crews also worked hard to complete meter changeovers while drivers were away from their spots. When these customers returned, they saw a new meter installed with additional time added to their stay – a win for everyone.
The difference: our new single-space meters have larger, brighter screens.
The numbers
Over the course of the project, crews installed:
- State-of-the-art, multi-space pay stations and single-space meters for about 26,700 parking spaces in neighborhoods across the city. This included:
- More than 2,700 MacKay Tango multi-space pay stations
- 11,000 MacKay mkBeacon single-space parking meters
- More than 9,000 new parking signs to improve clarity and convenience
Resources for your next drive in the city
Visit the Citywide Parking Meter Replacement Project webpage to learn more about the citywide parking meter upgrades. It covers the pay-by-plate parking system and features several photos of the new pay stations.
To learn more about how to pay for parking at a meter, you can visit our Parking Meters webpage.
The “Curb Space” episode of our Taken with Transportation podcast also walks you through how to pay at our new meters and pay stations. Plus, the episode features parking tips and explains how managing the curb makes our streets safer and can support San Francisco businesses.
We also have a program where you can receive an alert in case your car is at risk of being towed. You can learn more and sign up on our Text Before Tow Program webpage. The program applies if you are parked in a construction zone, temporary no parking zone, blocking a driveway or parked in the same space for more than 72 hours.
We hope these resources help the next time you take a drive in the city.
Comments are for the English version of this page.