Boston Parking Meter Rates To Go Up In July

BOSTON — In an effort to take all of your quarters encourage turnover of parking spaces, Boston is raising the cost of parking at a meter. Starting July 1, parking meter rates will increase across the city. The last time Boston raised parking meter fees citywide was 2011 when the hourly rate increased from $1.00 to $1.25. Next month the meters will cost at least $2.50 an hour, depending on where you park.

“In response to the needs of our growing city, we’re developing and implementing solutions to ensure that residents of Boston and the surrounding region have an effective transportation system available to them," said Chief of Streets for the City of Boston Chris Osgood in a statement. "The new parking meter fees reflect current demand for short-term parking in Boston and will help to ease congestion on the City’s busiest streets.”

Officials say the revised fees build off the two-year performance parking pilot program in the difficult to find parking spaces in Back Bay and South Boston Waterfront. In the Back Bay the city applied a consistent price over a large area and said it found double-parking decreased by 14 percent, and illegal parking decreased by an average of 22 percent. During this pilot, on average a parking space was available on every block, according to the city.

While Boston may be leading the pack when it comes to traffic and expensive housing, it still ranks as one of the cities with the lowest parking meter prices.

In Seattle, it costs $4/hour to park at a meter. Look for rates as high as $6.50/hour in both San Francisco and Chicago. In NYC parking meter rates just went up, too. Hourly parking rates for passenger parking range from $1.25 to $7.50. In Washington rates are between $1 an hour and $4.75. But, shhh, nobody tell Brookline. Or Cambridge, for that matter, where high demand parking meter rates are still $1.50.

New rates in Boston:
Back Bay $3.75/hour
Fenway $2.50/hour
Seaport $3.75/hour
North Station $2.50/hour

The city estimates it will rake in some $5 million from the meter raise. And the plan is to invest that money in accessible sidewalks, improved bus corridors, protected bike lanes, and electric vehicle charging infrastructure.

This comes a year after the city raised the cost of tickets for overstaying your welcome at meters.

Related:

Brookline Parking Meters Just Got A Little More Expensive

Patch reporter Jenna Fisher can be reached at Jenna.Fisher@patch.com or by calling 617-942-0474. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram (@ReporterJenna).