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SF Parking

Everything you need to know about SF Street Cleaning!

Click to see if Street Cleaning is suspended in the next days

Street Cleaning is managed by San Francisco Public Works. They sweep the streets weekly or twice per month in residential areas and at least once per week in commercial areas.

Almost all the neighborhoods are concerned – SOMA, Marina, FiDi, Nob Hill, Mission, Castro, NOPA, North Beach, Russian Hill, etc. So read this guide carefully 🙂

What time is Street Cleaning?

In residential areas, street sweeping tends to happen any time from the early morning to the afternoon. In commercial areas, street sweeping usually happens at night.

You can check our SF street cleaning map to find the hours for your street.

Is it legal to park after the Street Sweeper passes?

In this article, KQED interviewed officer Denise Golden who described the SFMTA street cleaning process in 4 steps:

  1. The broom support truck, looking for anything that cannot be vacuumed up by the street sweeper
  2. The street flusher, which has jets underneath the truck that shoot water on the roadway
  3. The parking ticket officer, citing cars that haven’t moved
  4. The street sweeper comes last with big brushes and a large tube that vacuums up all the remaining trash on the street

Apparently only the steps 3 and 4 are applied city-wide. The decision to apply the full 4-steps process includes a variety of factors, like which street is being cleaned, which district the street is in, time of year, and if there are special events and what has been requested.

It’s safe to park only if you’ve seen a parking ticket officer citing un-moved cars followed by the street sweeper (if you’ve never seen one it is the heavy truck with big brushes and large vacuum tubes). If you have a doubt, you’d better not park to avoid a street cleaning SF violation.

San Francisco Street Cleaning Holidays

SF Parking Holidays

In residential areas, street cleaning is suspended during the legal holidays listed in the follow.

Start DateParking HolidayEnd Date
2024-01-01New Year's Day2024-01-01
2024-01-15Martin Luther King, Jr. Day2024-01-15
2024-02-19Washington's Birthday (Presidents' Day)2024-02-19
2024-05-27Memorial Day2024-05-27
2024-07-04Independence Day2024-07-04
2024-09-02Labor Day2024-09-02
2024-10-14Indigenous Peoples Day2024-10-14
2024-11-11Veterans day2024-11-11
2024-11-28Thanksgiving Day2024-11-28
2024-11-29Day after Thanksgiving2024-11-29
2024-12-25Christmas Day2024-12-25

Special Parking Rules in SF

In areas with 7-day night street sweeping (mostly commercial areas), street cleaning is suspended only on the 3 holidays: New Year’s Day, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day.

Alternatively, you can follow our Twitter account @SFParkingAlerts to be notified when there is a street cleaning holiday in San Francisco.

Follow @SFParkingAlerts

How much is a Street Cleaning Ticket in SF?

In 2020, violating street cleaning SF will cost you $76! The fine has gone up from $68 (2016) and increases on a yearly basis. It is also the most issued type of ticket among SF parking tickets.

Street Cleaning SF versus other SF parking violations (2016)

The most ticketed area is Mission St. between 1st and 2nd Street. Almost $300,000 in street cleaning fines were issued on that block in 2016.

So how do I avoid getting a Street Cleaning Ticket?

There are two main reasons why this ticket is so common:

  • Parking signs are often hard to understand
  • Many people simply forget about it because they didn’t set a reminder/alarm

A few services to track the San Francisco street cleaning schedule are currently available. San Francisco Public Works issued a street sweeping schedule. They also have a map but the search is very complicated and it’s not mobile-friendly. Other companies offer a SF street cleaning map but the data is often missing or inaccurate.

The SpotAngels app is the easiest way to deal with the issue. It is used by thousands of San Francisco residents who constantly keep the parking rules updated. It was featured on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store as the best parking app in the US and described as “Waze for parking” and “the parking hero we’ve needed but never had”.

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