(San Francisco–Casey Miner, KALW News) San Francisco launched its real-time parking data feed Thursday morning at City Hall – and, fittingly, there was more than enough parking to go around. A strong start, as the city hopes the dynamic pricing pilot will ease congestion and generally improve people’s quality of life.

People deciding whether to drive into one of the project’s eight test neighborhoods can look online to check parking availability and price – or, if they’re on the go, they can use a handy iPhone app. (Sorry, Android users, nothing for you yet, though the city promises apps for other smartphones in a few weeks.) Over time, the parking prices will change from block to block in response to supply and demand, raising prices consistently on some streets until there is at least one space available on every block.

I wanted to test it out for myself, so I checked the site from my home in the East Bay before heading out for the press conference. San Francisco’s downtown is usually fairly crowded, and though some neighborhoods are worse than others, I usually won’t even consider driving unless I absolutely have to. But at 10am, it looked like I’d have no trouble finding parking within one block of City Hall.

Driving in, I did hit one unanticipated snag: tons of traffic on the Bay Bridge. Call it wishful thinking, but I’d love to see an app that would estimate how long it should take me to get from my house in Oakland to my destination in San Francisco, based on real-time traffic and parking info.

At any rate, when I finally made it in I spied a parking space within spitting distance of City Hall. For $3/hr – less than the current max of $3.50 – I didn’t have to circle the block at all. Walking from my car to the building, I saw a number of other free spots on the street.

“’Park’ is a four-letter word that has often engendered a lot of other four-letter words,” said city Supervisor David Chiu, prompting chuckles among the reporters and transit officials present at the launch. Chiu said he only owned a car in San Francisco for six months back in 1999 – “I personally helped fund MTA’s deficit” – and typically commutes by bike. But, he said, SFPark will make life better for people like him too, by reducing the number of double-parked cars and circling, angry drivers. “I look forward to the day when we can drive around the streets, spend less than three minutes looking for parking, and get on with our lives,” he said.

After the press conference I headed over to the Mission, another of the city’s dense neighborhoods and one to which I typically avoid driving if I can. But the feed promised me ample parking on the neighborhood’s main streets, and indeed I could have parked anywhere I wanted to.

It will be a while before the city’s able to tell how well the pricing structure really works: the goal is to have at least one space available on every block, even during busy times. But there’s another, bigger goal, which is to keep people from driving if they don’t have to. I usually don’t want to deal with the hassle of driving, so I won’t be turning in my Clipper card anytime soon. But it’s nice to know that in a pinch, I should be able to park where I need to.