In San Francisco parking news in June, a startup tried to auction public parking spaces, activists sought CEQA review of a proposal to re-authorize free parking on Sundays, new data appeared on variable-rate parking, and drivers peeved at "transit first" policies were collecting signatures for a November ballot measure.

No, really: in late June the City Attorney's office told a startup company, MonkeyParking, to stop auctioning public parking access to the public: http://www.planetizen.com/articles/node-70046.

CityLab's Eric Jaffe looked at some new data on the city's SFPark variable-rate meter system and found that in many ways it successfully rations parking by raising its price, reducing the amount of circling in search of spaces. However, he presented additional data from academic researchers Daniel Chatman and Michael Manville suggesting that, while the meters did successfully control overall occupancy by discouraging those willing to pay less, the result didn't guarantee that a space would be open when someone willing to pay for it wanted one: http://bit.ly/1mpUJOe.

In a separate SFMTA proposal that a spokesman described as "part of our efforts to make parking in San Francisco more efficient overall," the city was considering charging at meters even if drivers or their passengers had disability placards: http://bit.ly/1luEAlO.

And remember the CEQA appeal of the repeal of Sunday parking meter charges? The dispute is still going. As of mid-June the Planning Department and SFMTA argued that allowing free parking on Sundays wasn't a CEQA-reviewable decision, as recounted by Aaron Bialick of SF Streetsblog at http://bit.ly/1mg7FHD. The Board of Supervisors took the same position June 17 by voting to endorse CEQA exemption for the whole SFMTA two-year budget, including the Sunday meter repeal. For Bialick's account of the meeting see http://bit.ly/1qMvzKh. The legislative tracking page for the item is at http://bit.ly/1jFiAVN. Whether court action will follow remains to be seen.

The Sunday parking issue, together with other SF parking restrictions, was becoming a cause not just for bike, pedestrian and environmental activists but for a car drivers' pushback group, Restoring Transportation Balance in San Francisco. It has been greeted with sarcasm from several quarters (including SF Streetsblog at http://bit.ly/1mSrCEo), but the conservative Potrero View neighborhood paper was cheering for the group at http://www.potreroview.net/feat10582.html and the group itself, with a home page at http://www.restorebalance14.org/, was working to gather signatures by July 7 for a local ballot initiative petition. The initiative would mandate free Sunday parking, condition new and variable-rate meters on a local neighborhood petition process, freeze city parking rates for five years, and increase representation for "motorists" in SFMTA governance.

(A similar fed-up drivers' group in Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Parking Freedom Initiative, was working toward creation of a ballot measure according to its Web site at http://www.parkinglosangeles.org. While it appears there's no definite ballot measure text yet, KPCC reports the group has begun to get some policy traction with Mayor Eric Garcetti: http://bit.ly/1jFmjm8)

After all of which, you'd be surprised how many street parking spaces there really are in San Francisco. Aaron Bialick decided to count them. He found that, lined up end to end, they would run 900 miles, exceeding the length of California's coastline: http://bit.ly/TzKE6G.