Chronicle Watch: Some S.f. Drivers Still Feed Meters On Sundays

Signs that demand payment from noon to 6 p.m. Sundays have not been removed from about a quarter of the city’s meters since San Francisco stopped charging for Sunday parking in July, according to records from the Municipal Transportation Agency. While the digital displays on meters have been changed to say there’s no parking charge, the conflicting claims are creating confusion for drivers already prone to anxiety over the city’s patchwork of colored curbs, permit zones and street-cleaning signs. “As they upgrade the meters, they’re updating the signs on the sides,” said Paul Rose, a spokesman for the Municipal Transportation Agency. The new meters, Rose said, have larger, more readable displays and can process credit, debit and city parking cards. City transportation officials, though, said they did not know how much of that deficit was being erased by confused motorists still pumping money into the meters on Sundays, because the meters don’t distinguish which day of the week payment is deposited. The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency is fixing the labels to reflect the correct hours for paid parking, but only as each parking meter is replaced with an upgraded model.