Give 'Em the 'Boot': S.F. Car Immobilizations On the Rise

When we asked the Municipal Transportation Agency what was going on, the response was, essentially, beats the hell out of us! (By the way -- while booting totals dropped, that was little solace to Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, whose Jeep was immobilized).

This year, we once again requested the MTA to provide us with booting data. Nowadays, according to the stats, bootings are up -- way up. And, unlike before, the agency has an explanation.

In fiscal 2009 -- that'd be June 30 of '08 to June 30 of '09 -- the city booted 4,873 cars. Through the first six months of fiscal '10, 2,818 boots were applied. If the city keeps up this pace, it will administer 5,636 boots -- a 16 percent bump from last year.

Just before the start of fiscal '10, the MTA started having one of its parking enforcement crews work at night instead of during the day. While the officers may rue missing House, they do seem to be booting more cars; folks who take the car out to work or otherwise during the day tend to be home at nights. Watching House. And that makes the MTA officers even angrier.

In addition to working hours better suited to busting scofflaws, the officers are also better equipped than last year. In August, the MTA vans used by the "boot crews" were installed with two additional "license plate recognition units" and now have three apiece. These scanner devices can "read" license plates and rapidly check them against a database of boot-eligible drivers.

Three scanners is better than one -- and you don't need to be Dr. House to know it.