SF Streets

Each line on the map is one stretch of street between two intersections, as San Francisco Public Works maps it, and is named by its hundred block, from the house numbers along it. Freeways and their ramps, private roads, and streets that exist only on paper are left out.

Each block has two sides, named by the direction they face (the north side is the one on the north of the street), as the city's street-cleaning schedule names them; where it doesn't, the page works it out from the street's direction. On the map, the block you pick has a letter on each side: N for its north side, E for east, and so on.

Worked out in your browser for the time and stay you pick, from each side's street-cleaning schedule, meters, the city's list of time limits, permit areas and no-parking and tow-away zones, and today's street closures and temporary no-parking signs. It finds the first rule that would stop you: parking isn't allowed when you arrive (no parking), you'd have to leave before your stay ends (have to move: street cleaning, a tow-away or a time limit starting), you'd have to pay a meter, or nothing in these lists stops you (free), up to 72 hours, the most any car can stay in one spot. A time limit is worked out for a car without that area's residential permit. Where a side has several kinds of meter, it goes by the general (grey) ones. On New Year's Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas SFMTA enforces no meters, time limits or street cleaning; on the city's other holidays, meters and street cleaning with holiday hours still run, but not time limits or daytime street cleaning (SFMTA's holiday schedule). Tow-away and no-parking zones, closures and temporary signs are kept on every day. It can't see painted curbs without meters, driveways, hydrants, or temporary signs that aren't in the city's lists, so a line marked free is only free of the rules in these lists. Always read the posted signs.

From Public Works' street sweeping schedule, which lists each side of each block with its days, hours and weeks of the month (the 1st and 3rd Tuesday is the first and third Tuesday in the month). "Ticketed on X% of cleaning days" counts the posted days in the last two years with at least one street-cleaning ticket on that side during the posted hours, leaving out city holidays and any day with hardly any street-cleaning tickets anywhere in the city.

Meters are SFMTA's parking meters on the street that are in use, each placed on the side of the block it stands on, with its hours, rates and time limits from SFMTA's meter policies as they are this week (rates change with demand). A meter's cap color says what it's for: grey for anyone, green for a short stay, yellow and red for commercial loading, black for motorcycles. Time limits, residential permit areas, and no-parking, overnight and government-permit zones come from SFMTA's list of parking regulations, drawn as lines along the curb, and are placed on the block side they run along.

SFMTA's list of temporary street closures (special events, shared spaces and permitted work; not closures by Public Works or the police) and its permits for temporary no-parking signs, mostly for construction. Both change every day, so the page loads them from data.sf.gov when you open it, for today and the next two weeks. A closure with all lanes closed means no parking on the block while it runs; one with some lanes closed, or signs along only part of a side, shows as a warning. A closure over several days with set hours counts as closed those hours each day. Many temporary signs, like those for moves, aren't in these lists.

The garages and lots the city runs (SFMTA, the Port and Recreation and Parks), at their main entrance, or by their address where the list has no entrance; 51 of the 58 can be placed. Privately run garages and lots aren't in the city's open data, and the list has no hours or rates.

SFMTA parking citations from the last two years, placed on a block by the address written on the ticket (the block whose house numbers include it) and on a side by whether the number is odd or even; tickets without a usable address go by their coordinates. The city adds the last few days late, so the two years end on the last day that looks complete. Muni fare and passenger conduct citations, which are in the same list, are left out. The fine shown for a kind is its median across the city in the last 90 days, since fines go up over time.

SFMTA's speed cameras (with their posted limit, and the tickets and warnings each issued since it started, up to two years) and red-light cameras (tickets per intersection over the last two years).

SFPD reports of theft from a vehicle and of auto parts in the last two years, at the corner SFPD places them. "Top 4% of SF blocks" means 96% of the city's blocks had fewer at their corners.

The walking card counts what's within a distance of the spot you pick: 100 to 500 m, 200 m to start (about 650 ft, a 3-minute walk). Distances are as the crow flies, not along the streets. Crashes count where the report places them; police reports and calls count at the corner they're placed at. The ranks compare the circle with one the same size around each of the city's intersections (where two or more differently named streets meet): "Top 4% of SF intersections" means only 4% have as many or more; 96% have fewer.

Traffic crashes resulting in injury (SFPD, via data.sf.gov) from the two years up to the latest in the data, where the other party was a pedestrian. The card counts every one the report places inside the circle, and doesn't say how badly they were hurt: in a circle so few people could point to someone. "Badly hurt" in the summary is the report's severe injury; the cause is the report's primary collision factor, in plainer words.

San Francisco's 2024 High Injury Network, from the Department of Public Health for Vision Zero, the city's policy since 2014 to end traffic deaths. It counts everyone killed or badly hurt in traffic from 2020 to 2024, walking, cycling or driving, from police crash reports matched with records from Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and the ambulance services; the hospital decides how badly each person was hurt. Streets are split into stretches of one street name at least a quarter mile long, and a stretch is on the network if it had 10 or more people killed or badly hurt per mile. Ends more than 500 ft past the last such person on that street are then left off. The card names the streets on it that pass through the circle. The share of people walking hit on it, under the map, counts a crash as on it when it happened on one of its blocks or at one of their corners.

SFPD incident reports from the last two years, grouped into robbery; assault and other violence (assault, homicide, rape, sex offenses); pickpocketing and purse snatching; weapons; and drug offenses. A report counts once per group, and supplements to a report aren't counted again. SFPD publishes each report at a nearby corner rather than the exact place, so the page shows corners, not blocks. The map shades neighborhoods by reports of violence and robbery per km of street. The card counts the reports at the corners inside the circle.

Calls to police dispatch in the last two years that weren't officers' own stops (Law Enforcement Dispatched Calls for Service: Closed), by the call type dispatch closed it as: fights and assaults (fights with or without weapons, assault and battery, aggravated assault, stabbing); someone with a gun or knife (including shots fired, shootings, and ShotSpotter alerts, which come from microphones rather than callers); robbery (including purse snatching); and threats and harassment (including stalking and indecent exposure). Left out: calls marked domestic violence, elder abuse or child abuse, which are mostly at home; thefts, which are mostly shoplifting; suspicious persons, trespassers, noise, alarms and traffic; well-being checks and other calls about people in crisis; and complaints about homeless people. Calls aren't checked: for these types, about a third ended with no one there when police arrived (Sep 2024 to Sep 2026), and about 1 in 8 led to a written report. Each call is placed at a nearby intersection; calls marked sensitive have no place and are left out. The card counts the calls at the corners inside the circle.

Between sunset and sunrise in San Francisco on that date, worked out from the date to within a few minutes of the published times. Dusk after sunset and dawn before sunrise count as after dark. A crash and a police report go by the time they happened, as the report gives it; a call goes by when it came in.

The summary covers the same two years as the map, for the whole city. Around each place it counts the pedestrian crashes, and the police reports at corners, within 200 m as the crow flies, and compares that with the same circle around each of the city's intersections (where two or more differently named streets meet). Neighborhoods are ranked by count per km of street. The corners list counts crashes at an intersection, not those mid-block. Winter is November to January and summer is May to July. The totals per year are every pedestrian injury crash since 2015, and every police report of the kinds shown since 2018, in each full year, counted by data.sf.gov; there a report counts once even when it's more than one kind.

A ticket only appears when someone broke the rule and an officer came by, so quiet blocks look less enforced than they are, and a rule nobody was ticketed for doesn't show up in the tickets at all. The city's lists can be out of date or miss a sign, and they don't include painted curbs without meters, driveways or temporary signs. Always read the posted signs.

Only reported crashes with an injury are counted, and the crash data runs about two months behind. A street with few crashes may just have few people walking on it; counts aren't adjusted for foot traffic. Police reports show where reports were taken, which depends on where police patrol and on who calls or files online, as much as on where things happen. Drug offenses are reports of having or selling drugs; they don't count overdoses.

• Streets – Active and Retired, San Francisco Public Works via DataSF (public domain): the blocks, their names, house numbers and cross streets
• Traffic Crashes Resulting in Injury, SFPD via DataSF, and the 2024 High Injury Network, SF Department of Public Health
• Police Department Incident Reports: 2018 to Present, SFPD via DataSF
• Law Enforcement Dispatched Calls for Service: Closed, Department of Emergency Management via DataSF
• Automated Speed Enforcement Citations and Red Light Camera Citations, SFMTA via DataSF
• SFMTA Parking Citations & Fines, Parking Meters, Meter Policies and Parking regulations, SFMTA via DataSF
• Street Sweeping Schedule, San Francisco Public Works via DataSF
• Temporary Street Closures, Parking Signs / Street Space Permits and SFMTA Managed Off-street Parking, SFMTA via DataSF
• Holiday Street Parking Enforcement Schedule, SFMTA: what's enforced on city holidays
• Analysis Neighborhoods, DataSF (public domain): the neighborhood outlines on the map
• Map © OpenStreetMap contributors, loaded from openstreetmap.org