S.F. parkers can pay tickets online

San Francisco parking violators are now able to pay fines over the Internet through CityServices, a city government e-commerce site. A typical online payment, which is made with a major credit card, takes less than five minutes to complete, the city says, and people can also print a hard-copy receipt and check the payment status of other parking citations online. San Francisco has 100,000 more cars than parking spaces, studies indicate. The city issues about 2.4 million parking citations per year and processes more than 700 payments per day with its pay-by-phone service. According to the site, violators will be charged a $2.75 "convenience fee" per citation when they use the Web-based system. The city also said the service is not ready to handle other types of traffic or vehicular violations, but has plans to expand its capabilities.