Changes to the on-street parking system

When paid on-street parking began in September the message from the City of Tacoma was the system is designed to be flexible and over time adjustments will be made to the system. In the last several months the City of Tacoma and The Downtown Parking Management Advisory Task Force has been listening to your suggestions for improving the operations of the new pay stations to benefit its many users. Here are several changes you will see in the coming weeks including:

• On Saturdays, buy two hours and you can park all day. Parkers will be able to purchase all day parking on Saturday at each pay station for just $1.50. Users can still purchase less than two hours of time when needed, but they will not get the all day parking benefit. This is a pilot program to be evaluated in February.

• Parkers can now pre-purchase parking time for the next day beginning at 8 p.m. This change will allow more parkers to conveniently purchase time and display their receipt before enforcement begins the following morning.

• No charge for parking on portions of Market Street from S. 11th to S. 21st Streets. This is a pilot program to be evaluated in February. During this period, the City will collect parking data to assess parking demand and turnover in support of local businesses. A 90-minute time limit will be enforced.

Did you know…

• You can take your unexpired pay station time receipt to another parking space. Each pay station receipt has a time stamp that can be used in any stall within the paid parking area downtown.
• Twenty-five cents buys 20 minutes of time. The minimum cost for parking is $0.25 – for those short trips into a store or any quick stop.

For more information about the on-street parking system go to http://www.tacomaparking.com/.