How Parking SF handles off-hours parking pressure.
When meters are off, raw meter transactions stop being a reliable signal. Parking SF switches to an off-hours pressure model instead of implying that every block suddenly became empty.
Parking SF uses operating schedules to know when meter activity should drive the map. Outside those windows, it blends in parking-related 311 complaint patterns to represent pressure more honestly.
Why meter data alone is not enough at night
If meters are not enforced, lower meter activity does not automatically mean parking is easy. A map that relied only on meter events would risk showing false calm after hours.
What Parking SF uses instead
The product uses public operating schedules to understand enforcement windows, then uses parking-related 311 complaint patterns as an off-hours signal. That does not turn the app into a live sensor product, but it does make the map more honest than showing blank streets.
How to read the result
Off-hours pressure should be interpreted as a planning estimate, not as a claim that a specific curb space is open or closed. It is there to help compare likely pressure between areas and time windows when direct meter activity stops being trustworthy.