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Comment by jonny_eh | Hacker News Reader

Probably a good time to tell people that SF operates a "Text Before Tow Program" where you can get a warning that you're about to get towed: https://www.sfmta.com/text-tow-program

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> This service only applies to parking more than 72-hours, blocked driveway, construction, and temporary no-parking (special event or moving truck) zones. Peak-hour tow-away lanes, hazards, yellow or white zones and other violations are not included.

Still great though. That would have saved me $500 6 years ago.

It would have saved me $600 two weeks ago.

This is fantastic. It really signals that the point is not to get money from you, but to free up the parking spot.

They also ticket without towing, where the point is entirely to get money from you.

Or to say "don't do this"

Where I'm from there's no concept of towing on any parking violations. No one has the right to touch your vehicle, and if the police is involved they'd just contact the owner. The police would only move a car if it's a danger to the public.

A tow truck is only something you'd call for assistance, not something you fear seeing.

(Parking fines suck, but the municipal ones are usually more reasonable here, even if they don't always get the rules right. It's the parking companies managing large private parking lots, often for free to the lot owner, that are absurd.)

Where I'm from there's no concept of using public space to store your personal belongings without paying for it.

What about e-scooters?

Care to elaborate, as that sounds rather extreme?

I don't know of a country that requires all bicycle parking in any non-private location to be paid, nor a country that requires payment for roadside parking on country roads outside cities. Heck, even within cities, only the very dense ones seem to require paid parking on smaller roads.

Public space does not imply free of any use, but rather that it is freely used by all. The purpose of paid roadside parking is to reduce demand on what quickly becomes a limited resource in dense cities.

Towing makes perfect sense when a car is blocking access. Parked in front of driveways for example.

Here (Denmark), blocking a drive-way would not be a parking violation handled by a parking inspector, but a traffic violation handled by the police. They would contact you directly and have you sprint to your car.

Parking tickets are also considered fees, paid to those managing the parking area (municipality for public roads), as opposed to fines issued by the police or a judge and subject to very specific rules.

I've seen news stories about cops impounding nearby Teslas if they think its cameras might have caught something related.

I’ve long believed that “first one free” would be a great way to help reduce the impact of tickets on people while still achieving the same goal

Often it's unofficially the policy. For PT ticket fines in Melbourne, I've never heard of someone having a fine enforced for the first problem. It's pretty much always just a warning logged against you.

They gave me a $50 discount on the ~$600 fee for getting towed in SF due to it being a first time violation. Not quite free, but I'll take it?

>> A tow truck will be dispatched in conjunction with the text message notification and could be there in as few as five minutes.

If only they operate in good faith, and that is something I'd highly doubt given its SFMTA. As in they could call tow truck ahead of time, so that its almost unlikely the person will be able to get to their car in time.

Why should roads, walkways, and construction sites be blocked just to let someone have more time to avoid a ticket? I imagine the text goes out from SF's servers simultaneously with the tow truck summons. It's a fair shot for both.

I totally agree with you on that, but then why have this program at first place then?

I'm just saying that given its SFMTA -- if the tow truck will take say 30 min, they will probably try to wait and issue the ticket later right before tow truck can arrive so that they can get the fines. SFMTA relies heavily on fining people for their revenue and hence incentivized to not act on good faith here. Obviously, it an accusation based on anecdotes and personal experience and by no means an evidence, and I may very well be wrong, but overall I've very very little faith in SFMTA.

>> I imagine the text goes out from SF's servers simultaneously with the tow truck. These systems are often old. I wouldn't assume anything here.

If they really want to free up the spot there’s a good chance the driver is closer than the tow truck.

What does the city care? Whether it gets towed or moved by the owner it's still gone

Fines are big source of revenue for MTA. Citation would be $110 something, and if it gets towed its additional $700 for first X hours and then more later.

The OP example ticket in his info is for something like $480

There is citation fine + tow fee + administrative fee + storage fee.

https://www.sfmta.com/getting-around/drive-park/towed-vehicl...

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