Parking Pay Stations Coming to Downtown Raleigh

Beginning in late January, daytime visitors to downtown Raleigh will have to hunt even harder for free parking. The city of Raleigh will commence with installing pay stations for on street parking beginning January 25th with an expected completion date in mid-March. According to the city’s website, a total of 173 stations will be installed for metered parking downtown.

The new pay stations will be installed throughout the downtown core bounded by Edenton Street, South Street, Blount Street and Harrington Street. The pay stations also will be placed along Glenwood Avenue from Hillsborough Street to Peace Street in the Glenwood South area.

In addition to these areas, another 20 pay stations will be installed on Hillsborough St. between Oberlin and Gardner once the roundabout construction is completed later this year. Parking enforcement officers will be on hand for the first two weeks after each installment of the pay stations to help out drivers who have questions or concerns using the meters. Blue parking signs will also be installed to provide instructions for how to use the stations.

Paid parking will be required in these spots between 8am and 5pm, Monday through Friday, while evening and weekend parking will remain free to the public. Parking may be paid for in 15-minute increments up to the maximum time allotted for each space. The pay stations will accept change (nickels, dimes, and quarters), and – thankfully, since cash is so last millennium – also credit cards (Visa and Mastercard), though they require a $1 minimum charge.

In a press release earlier this year, Raleigh parking administrator, Gordon Dash, said:

“The new pay stations are meant to encourage a turnover in on-street parking spaces and allow visitors to downtown to have convenient access to short term parking. Those visitors that require more than two hours are encouraged to use the City’s parking garages.”

As someone who doesn’t venture downtown much during the work day, and firmly planted in the “drive around until you find free parking” camp, I doubt this will affect me much. But many other downtown drivers will feel the parking pinch, to some degree, when they visit downtown beginning early 2010.

photo credit

North_Raleigh_Guy12/29 10:37 PM

You should read the comments about this story on the GOLO WRAL website. They are hilarious.

JP12/30 12:48 AM

I just hope they don’t have silly number signs beside each spot, like they did once on Hillsborough street in front of NCSU’s North Hall. Numbering the spots adds nothing to the usability of the system, and you end up with all these stupid sign posts along the sidewalk adding clutter. In every other place I have seen pay stations, you pay your parking at the station on the block, and leave the ticket with expiration timestamp on your dash - no numbered spots required. I’m already saddened to see that they’ve painted specific parking spots on the street. these usually end up taking up extra space, but I guess they leave no question about where you can and cannot park. I just hope we get the “big boy” system with no number posts in Raleigh.

JP12/30 12:57 AM

Oh and if this is the article North_Raleigh_Guy was mentioning, then yeah, there is some hilarious, ignorant shit in the comments.
http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/4256300/?navkeyword=parking

Happy to feed a meter12/30 10:22 AM

I look forward to this. I work between downtown and Boylan Heights and it is really difficult to find short-term parking. I’ve received the $45 ticket for parking in the loading zone outside Morning Times. Ouch! I’ve had to phone Spize and ask them to bring my takeout order to the curb after circling the block repeatedly. By moving the office workers into the decks, and free areas along the R-Line, it allows more of us to support local business. The WRAL comments are hilarious. Yes, those people want the government handout of free parking instead of using the private decks.

RaleighMAC12/30 12:33 PM

These machines are so much more convenient than meters… How many times have you pulled up to a meter only to find you had no change?? This is a great step for Raleigh. Parking meter funds provide so much needed money for the city… why should parking in a business are be free anyway? Good job, Raleigh!

RaleighMAC12/30 12:37 PM

and - oh my god, the WRAL comments!!!! hehehhHAHAHAHAH wow… lots of true insight there…

Porter Jennings12/30 01:25 PM

We need more than pay stations. We need some city leaders with a brain.

As I was walking to lunch today on Hargett Street, a parking guy was using a metal tape measure to see how far away from the curb the rear tire of a van was resting.

The front tire was close to the curb, but the back tire was apparently just outside the 12-inch limit because as I looked back he was puling out his ticket book.

I spent much of last week in Charlotte and stayed downtown. They give out parking tickets, but I didn’t see anybody with a tape measure.

Shouldn’t the rule be that if you have to measure to see how close the tire is, then it is close enough.

That is unless we want to keep people from coming downtown in the first place.

Well done Mr. Allen. The law-abiding citizens of Raleigh can sleep better tonight knowing that those criminals who park 12.5 inches away from the curb are on notice.

Not in our fair city.

WRAL Commenter12/30 01:48 PM

Parking pay stations! You Obama Socialists will not rest until the downtown elite have everything and the rest of us hard working, God fearing Americans in Holly Springs have nothing!

Bill12/30 02:08 PM

The parking is not enforced by the city, it is contracted to a private company: Central Parking Systems http://www.parking.com/ I believe they are the same company that enforces Charlotte parking, as well. Their goal is to make as much money as possible - not to improve the city. Their rabid enforcement along Hillsborough St was a nuisance to the businesses there. And hey, Holly Springs, you are welcome to rent our fancy parking meters at $2 per hour. Private parking enforcement - The Blackwater of parking - something for you Republicans to enjoy.

RaleighRob12/30 02:10 PM

I’m as much of a downtown booster as anyone I know, yet even I tend to mostly go at evenings or weekends. Now, I might go for a weekday lunch or daytime shopping more. I’ll be happy to pay for a metered spot at a pay station close to the place I’m patronizing. Just like if I’m going somewhere downtown for a longer period of time, I’m perfectly happy to go to a deck. Makes sense folks…this could actually help downtown businesses.

gd12/30 02:41 PM

The funny thing to me is people keep saying I will be able to park close now etc. You always could. Downtown Raleigh is like 8 blocks total. Not exactly a long walk..

ncmyk12/30 09:39 PM

i agree with porter. i was with a friend who got a ticket just off a hillsborough side street a couple of years ago because he was just slightly too far from the curb.

now, if we go to lunch on hillsborough, we pay the extra 50 cents and park beneath the bowling alley where they leave you alone. its like parking-nazi insurance and worth it.

Micah12/31 12:59 PM

Porter, while I totally agree with you about the “If you have to measure, it is close enough” idea…That just doesn’t work anymore. This used to be the way we dealt with those not properly at the curb, but now nearly everyone will curse and scream and send letters about how they KNOW they were NOT that far from the curb. They actually measure now, and that takes any judgement call from the parking officer. No more claims of parking-nazi-ism, no more claims of parking officers with vendettas. In some cities, they actually print the distance you were from the curb, front and rear tire, on your ticket. In at least one more, the parking officer is required to take a picture of the license plate, as well as a picture of them holding the ruler up between the tire and the curb!

JRD01/01 11:32 AM

This is ridiculous. Making you pay for parking on a street like that. but then again not really. I guess it was only a matter of time. Thats kinda what I liked about dt. You could just pull up in a spot and that was that. No worries. It was total freedom. Now ther will always be that time constraint looming over your head. Thats not freedom.
If they did do the pay station thing, they should just make one meter on which you can press a button and enter money for the spot that you are in which would be numbered on the curb. It would reduce sidewalk clutter, you wouldnt have to go back to your car, and it would save trees by eliminating the need for little trash slips of paper.

gd01/01 12:16 PM

Uh, even when parking was free, most parking had a time limit - whether 30 mins, 1 hour or 2 hours.
. Man, you would think the city government and NC as a whole are asking people to give up their first born child by a) charging a SMALL amount for parking downtown on the street and b) banning smoking in restaurants and bars.
. Get a F’n grip Raleigh.

Not New To Raleigh01/01 08:59 PM

It’s great that the new parking tax on previously free spaces that had time limits as low as 15 minutes will severely cut down on the number of people that park there for sure.

It’s also great that there will be less competition at restaurants, stores, etc. since there will be less people willing to pay $2 for parking.

Let’s hope that some of those previously closed spaces in the downtown area will now reopen thanks to the influx of parking spaces.

Yes, Cameron Village (free parking), North Hills Mall (free parking), and other shopping areas (free parking) will surely start charging $2 as well since it will be such a boon to businesses.

In fact, we probably should follow Charlotte’s lead in charging for all parking spaces at all times, as we see what a great job that did in helping out Charlotte’s businesses downtown (pretty dead compared to Raleigh).

PS: Anyone who couldn’t find an open parking space during the day in downtown Raleigh didn’t really look all that hard. Plus, there were already paid parking decks that are never full if you wanted to pay to park.

Bill01/01 09:10 PM

It is free parking at night and weekends. I think people will still go to work between 8 & 5 weekdays even after the meters are in place.

tjoad01/02 01:08 AM

Not new to Raleigh,

You should check out The High Cost of Free Parking by Donald C. Shoup. Interesting read… here’s a summary from Amazon:

Product Description
American drivers park for free on nearly ninety-nine percent of their car trips, and cities require developers to provide ample off-street parking for every new building. The resulting cost? Today we see sprawling cities that are better suited to cars than people and a nationwide fleet of motor vehicles that consume one-eighth of the world’s total oil production. Donald Shoup contends in The High Cost of Free Parking that parking is sorely misunderstood and mismanaged by planners, architects, and politicians. He proposes new ways for cities to regulate parking so that Americans can stop paying for free parking’s hidden costs.

Not New To Raleigh01/02 12:29 PM

Regarding other comments:

Bill: I am sure that people will still go to work and those folks probably already have parking at their jobs. However, for people who don’t live downtown but used businesses there, it will be an added “tax” and a disincentive to do business there.

TJoad: I am familiar with Mr. Shoup’s work and I believe he was paid by the City of Raleigh to speak here not long ago as part of their efforts to increase parking fees. Just like other consultants who have tried to eliminate the presence of cars in America, the problem remains that unlike Europe, we have no mass transit infrastructure to take its place. Further, if cities do not want urban sprawl, then they should quit annexing areas outside of their cores.

I agree that we rely too much on oil and I am all for putting money into much smaller electric / hybrid vehicles, etc. but customers, i.e. drivers, have a choice between shopping and doing business at places with metered spots and those without, then they will likely go to places like Cameron Village, North Hills, etc.

I don’t think downtown merchants will “benefit” from this any more than they “benefitted” from the pedestrian mall that was put on Fayetteville Street years ago as advised by another consultant who said it would “tranform” downtown. It was recently torn up and replaced with an actual “car friendly” street as you know. The pedestrian mall certainly did “transform” the street—most of the businesses there closed down and stores were left vacant.

Not New To Raleigh01/02 12:31 PM

By the way, sorry for my typos in my previous post. I have not had my coffee today.

Bill01/02 01:18 PM

NNTW: The goal is not to eliminate cars. The problem, studied by the City, is that too many of the parking spaces are being used by office employees downtown during the day. The solution, theoretically, is that by making street parking just a little more expensive than deck parking, of which there is plenty, workers will choose the decks and the spaces will be available to visitors to businesses and attractions like Marbles. I realize there are people like you who freak out over putting money in a meter but there are far more who enjoy finding a parking space rather than circling blocks, or paying for a parking deck just to run into a business for a moment. North Hills and Southpoint offer Valet parking to capitalize on that frustration.

Micah01/02 02:11 PM

Seconding tjoad, The High Cost of Free Parking is one of the most eye-opening books I have read in a long while.

arthurb301/05 01:29 PM

Its just awhole lot easier to park in a nice comfy deck while good lighting and nice vertical spaces and then walk a block or two. I don’t understand why people spend 15 or 20 minutes hunting for a spot right in front?

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Stacey Tuesday, December 29, 2009