Winnipeg’s Parking Authority has announced that they will be increasing fees in order to increase availability of downtown parking. The new fees will be effective Tuesday, November 13, 2012.
Meter rates in the high demand areas will increase from $1 to $2 per hour. A map outlining the streets included in the high demand zone can be found here:
http://winnipeg.ca/cao/media/imageLinks/ProposedHighDemandParkingAreas.htm
The changes to on-street paystations will be deployed in two phases to ensure the least amount of disruption to the public, while allowing for key changes to be made immediately. Phase one will begin Tuesday, November 13, 2012 and consists of the following:
Coin Acceptors:
* All 667 on-street paystations will be programmed and upgraded to allow paystations to accept new loonies and toonies that the Royal Canadian Mint began issuing in April 2012.
* Once the coin acceptor on each machine has been upgraded, a decal indicating the price will be applied adjacent to the coin slot to identify the machine has been upgraded to accept the new coinage.
High Demand Zone:
* Approximately 143 paystations in the downtown and Exchange District areas will be reprogrammed from the $1 to the $2 rate.
* These paystations will be clearly marked to differentiate them from those in the non-high demand areas. Once the paystation is re-programmed, a new decal will be applied adjacent to the coin slot to clearly identify the $2 rate. There will also be a green stripe on the paystation receipt that differentiates this receipt from non-high demand zones. The $2 high demand zone green striped receipt is transferable from the high demand zone to a non-high demand zone if time remains on the receipt. However, the $1 non-high demand rate zone receipts will not be transferable to any $2 zone if time remains on the receipt.
Removal of re-metering:
* Programming changes to the pay-by-phone system will remove the ability to purchase re-metered time by phone. Additionally, Compliance Officers will patrol and ensure compliance to the maximum timed parking limits, in order to ensure the turnover of limited on-street parking.
Complimentary Saturday Parking:
* New larger decals have been prominently placed on the paystations indicating two hours of complimentary parking is available in the downtown on Saturdays.
Phase two is scheduled to begin in April 2013, and will include start time changes on all on-street paystations from 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m., extended downtown evening metered parking until 8:30 p.m. and traffic street signage changes.
