A Website Saved San Francisco From Parking Tickets For a Day
▼ Summary
– A website called “Find My Parking Cops” briefly allowed San Francisco car owners to track the real-time locations of parking enforcement officers on a city map.
– The site’s creator, software engineer Riley Walz, built it by discovering that the citation numbers on SFMTA parking tickets follow a predictable pattern, allowing him to efficiently scrape data.
– The website’s functionality, which resembled Apple’s “Find My” feature, went viral on the day of its release but stopped working hours later when the city government cut off the data feed.
– The SFMTA stated that while they welcome technology that encourages legal parking, they need to ensure their employees can work safely and without disruption.
– The project was inspired by a parking ticket received by Walz’s roommate, leading to his discovery of the specific numerical pattern used for generating citation numbers.
For a brief but glorious period on Tuesday, a clever online tool offered San Francisco drivers a powerful advantage in the perennial battle against parking citations. The website, named “Find My Parking Cops,” provided a real-time map pinpointing the locations of city parking enforcement officers, effectively granting users a temporary shield against tickets. This digital reprieve, however, was short-lived, as the data feed powering the site was abruptly cut off by the city shortly after its launch.
The creator behind the innovative project is Riley Walz, a software engineer with a history of building attention-grabbing websites. His inspiration struck after his roommate received a parking ticket. While examining the citation, Walz’s engineering mind focused on the nine-digit number at the top of the form. He suspected the sequence might not be random, and his investigation proved correct. Walz discovered that the citation numbers were predictable, allowing him to systematically scrape new ticket data as it was issued by the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA).
Visually, the site mirrored the familiar interface of Apple’s “Find My” service. Instead of tracking friends and family, however, it displayed the moving trails of parking enforcement officers as they navigated the city in their distinctive three-wheeled vehicles. Each new ticket issued would appear on the map, revealing the officer’s current patrol route. The concept resonated instantly, spreading rapidly across social media platforms on its first day of operation.
Its success was its undoing. Within hours of going viral, the website’s functionality ceased. The SFMTA had apparently altered its systems, cutting off Walz’s access to the live data. An announcement posted to the site confirmed the shutdown, noting the city’s surprisingly swift response. In a statement, an SFMTA representative acknowledged the creativity of the tool but emphasized that citations are essential for ensuring street safety and the fair use of curb space. The agency also expressed a need to ensure its employees can perform their duties without disruption.
The technical breakthrough came from Walz identifying a specific pattern governing the ticket numbers. He detailed in a blog post that each subsequent citation number increases by 11, except when the last digit is a 6, in which case it increases by 4. This algorithm meant that no valid ticket number could ever end in 7, 8, or 9. This predictability was the key that unlocked the real-time tracking, turning a simple parking fine into the catalyst for a citywide, if fleeting, technological rebellion.
(Source: Wired)
