City Begins Installation of New Parking Meters

Kirstin Davis, Communications Manager, 509.625.7773

Monday, May 16, 2022 at 2:38 p.m.

Beginning Tuesday, May 17, the City will begin installing new single and dual space on-street parking meters in the downtown paid parking area. This is the next step in the on-street parking renovation project that began with the Downtown Parking Study in 2019. The ninety-page study, provides an assessment of all parking in the downtown area, curb activity, policy review and recommendations for an upgraded on-street parking system.

“It’s exciting to see the new meters on curbs and the thousands of hours of preparation by the team come to life to enhance the parking environment downtown,” says Steve MacDonald, Community & Economic Development Director.

Parking Services will be installing new devices in phases. Phase 1 will be May 17-20 and Phase 2 will be in June. Additional phases will be launched as funding for new devices allows over the next two to three years. There are over 5,000 designated on-street parking spaces and more than 3,400 paid parking devices in the City of Spokane.

How many and when?

  • 326 on-street single space on-street meters will be removed May 16-19
  • 36 single space on-street meters will be installed in May 17-19
  • 145 dual space on-street meters will be installed in May 17-19
  • Phase 2 installation will include single space, dual space, and multiple space kiosk devices

Where will new meters be installed?

Phase 1 meters will be installed west of Washington to Monroe and south of Spokane Falls Blvd. to First Avenue. Meters and kiosks will be installed in Phase 2 east of Washington to Browne and Spokane Falls Blvd. north to First Avenue. See attached map.

Benefits:

  • Payment Options: Meters and kiosks will accept credit/debit cards, coin and mobile payments for increased flexibility.
  • More Information: Meters and kiosks will have more information available to parking customers on the devices such as time status, reservation information and payment instructions.
  • Better Visibility: Meters will be color coded according to time limits for better visibility. Customers will be able to see time remaining and receipt of any payment on the meter. 2-hour meters will be purple, 4-hour meters blue and all-day meters green.
  • Consistency: Meters on a block face will be the same time stay. Meters installed during Phase 1 will be 2-hour time stay spaces with purple signage.
  • Convenient & Accessible: On-street parking customers will experience increased parking availability because there will be less time-stay violations, reducing “circling around the block” and waiting for a space to open up.
  • Space Makeover: Currently, there is a meter for every on-street parking space. Most of the new meters will be “dual-space” meaning there will be one meter for two spaces. This will remove almost half the meters within the downtown core. The unused posts will be removed or repurposed for bicycle racks. Outside of the downtown core most metered on-street parking spaces will be replaced with kiosks for every 6-8 parking spaces.
  • Improved Service: With less and more reliable devices, Parking Enforcement Specialists will be able to improve the health and safety of the community by having more resources to respond to unsafe violations.

What can on-street paid parking customers expect?

  • There will be a combination of new devices and old meters through the on-street paid area for a few years. New meters will be concentrated in the downtown core, old meters will be in the outer portions of the paid parking area.
  • New devices take all forms of payment, old devices only take coin and mobile payment and can no longer accept credit card payments.
  • The online parking map will be in transition during installation events and will not be accurate until the end of the installation week. Traffic lanes should not be affected.
  • Meter rates will stay the same.
  • Mobile app payments require a minimum charge of $1.20.
  • On-street paid parking can only be used for the maximum time-stay of the zone once per day.
  • Each block face is a separate zone.
  • New meters with digital screens can accept coin, credit card, Passport Parking and ParkMobile mobile apps, by phone, and online payments.
  • Disabled parking permits allow for free parking up to a maximum of 4 hours regardless of time limit stays.
  • Reserved parking spaces are indicated with red or orange placards providing the hours in which they are not available. Parking customers can utilize the space outside of the reserved time. Vehicles parked in reserved space within the time shown on the placard are subject to ticketing and being towed.
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