So we should create parking restrictions that don't let people park their cars on the street during that time.

"Don't park on our sweep day" signs have been proposed, and ignored for years. At one time there was even a move to allow home owners to buy and install their own city-approved signs on their fences. What happened? Nothing but a bunch of "not our job, try the ..... dept." messages circulating at city hall.

Oh no, there was one solution. They put those signs up on the section of Santa Clara Street in front of City Hall -- you know, the only section of Santa Clara that's decently paved, with no pot holes!

Thanks for reporting! We are working with our street sweepers to see if we can push back their arrival on this street. Our street sweepers are responsible for cleaning 714 lane miles twice a month. In order to get to all the streets, a route is followed that allows the most streets to get cleaned in the shortest amount of time, accounting for debris dumps that the sweepers must do (often several times a day) when their catch bin is full.
Our long term goal is to install signs letting residents know that vehicles and trash bins must be removed from the roadway on their cleaning day during a specific time frame. The enforcement of this would come from the Police Department, and we are working with them to create the resources to allow this.
In the meantime, you can direct your neighbors to our street sweeping webpage, which shows the street sweeping schedule and provides tips on how to make sure you get a clean street (http://bit.ly/1pekN3l).

"The enforcement of this would come from the Police Department" which means: "won't be done, VPD too busy fighting their (pointless) War on Drugs" which allows them to commando raid peaceful pot dispensaries, and play with their military toys like armored trucks, and assault weapons (see VPD recruitment video on cable TV).

Oh, Alun.. hope your statement makes you feel better inside.

Here is part of the problem.... my street...Ohio...is scheduled all at once. The sweeper goes up the street and then down in the middle of the street. This is an historic district so few people have driveways. They must park on the street. In San Francisco, one side of the street is swept one day and the other side of the street is swept on another day allowing people to park all on one side then move their cars to the other side on the other day. With the current scheme, ticketing people makes no sense. They can't wait at home for the sweeper to show up, run out and move their cars then after it passes run out to move the cars to the other side of the street. Ticketing will be futile. Oh wait. We could all park in the middle of the street like on Georgia. Then the sweepers could get both sides the same day. Creative solution. That's it. Mark the street for diagonal parking in the middle of the street. Problem solved.

Judy, I don't know if this was meant to be an ironic suggestion, but I think it's a very creative, low cost solution. Great idea.

Thank You for reporting. I apologize if our Street Sweeping service is not working for you. Our Sweeper operators sweep between 30 & 40 curb miles a day making it impossible to do one side of the street and come back to do the other. Our operators are doing the best job they can with the time they are given and the multiple obstructions that they deal with daily i.e. Basketball hoops, Garbage cans, Parked cars & illegal dumping in the streets. We will continue to try and give the best service possible.

Impossible to do the job? Really not the answer people want to hear.

I've already suggested to the city Council that they need to put up residential parking signs, this would be a twofold solution. A - it would get your streets cleaned on a regular schedule (One side per day) and B - it would force nonoperational vehicles to move or be ticketed or towed!

Looking back on this thread, I see three solutions proposed by city taxpayers, from the simply punitive, to the wildly innovative, and we've seen two city taxspenders explain why they plan on ignoring those ideas, and other suggestions, and do nothing but continue sweeping the middle of streets.

But, like I say, the street outside City Hall is well paved, and freshly swept, so the important folks are being looked after.