Sweep N' Park is a powerful visualization tool that helps you park where street sweeping or tow-away restrictions are expiring. It also lets you visualize meters and hourly parking.
If you have some flexibility with your arrival time, Sweep N' Park can be quite helpful. It relies on the fact that parking is more likely to be available on streets where the street sweeper has just gone through, or where tow-away restrictions have just expired.
Sweep N’ Park overlays street sweep, tow-away, meters and time limit information on top of a map of San Francisco. The spinners at the bottom of the map animate parking regulation changes over time, by allowing you to quickly change the day and hour.
Sweep N' Park is most helpful on weekdays because this is when street sweep and tow-away restrictions are active.
- Parking in the Financial District just as tow-away ends
Many streets in the Financial District have tow-away restrictions Monday through Friday starting at 3pm or 4pm and ending at 6pm or 7pm. If you can time your arrival at 6pm or 7pm then Sweep N' Park makes it is easier to find parking.
- Taking advantage of street sweep, by neighborhood
San Francisco neighborhoods do the bulk of their street sweeping Monday through Friday 8am-2pm. If you arrive just as street sweep ends or even when street sweep is currently active, then it can be much easier to find parking.
- Parking in an active street sweep zone
According to the San Francisco Public Works, it is legal to park in an active street sweep zone if the sweeper has already passed through.
Here are some tricks and tips to use AT YOUR OWN RISK, for determining if the sweeper has already passed through one side of a particular block in an active street sweep zone:
a. It may be obvious from the state of the street that it has already been swept. For example, the side of the street with active street sweep looks clean but there are a lot of leaves or trash on the sidewalk or across the street.
b. If local residents (for example, cars with lettered residential parking permit stickers) are parked in an active street sweep zone, then the sweeper has likely passed by.
c. If there are cars with street sweep tickets, then likely parking enforcement has already gone by. However, you are supposed to wait for the sweeper to go by as well. Parking enforcement vehicles always precede the street sweeper in San Francisco and typically the sweeper is not far behind.
- All information used by the app comes from the DataSF website https://data.sfgov.org, which provides San Francisco street sweep schedules, tow-away schedules, parking meter information, parking availability and street geography: