Street Parking

Overview

In October 2023, the City of Cleveland began updating on-street parking services to better provide convenient and available street parking. This process includes technology upgrades, changes to parking rules and regulations, and expanding metered zones.

The City of Cleveland is working with ParkMobile and Flowbird to provide new tools and technologies to manage and expand metered on-street parking. ParkMobile provides a mobile application, website, and phone service to pay for parking sessions, and is a significant upgrade from the coin-only meters currently available. Flowbird is the provider of pay stations located Downtown where users can pay for parking sessions without using a mobile application.

These tools will also allow the City to eventually roll out additional features, such as managing parking sessions through the mobile app, progressive parking rates, and demand-responsive pricing.

Review Frequently Asked Questions here.

Current Implementation – University Circle

The City’s parking meter update in Downtown Cleveland and Ohio City phase 1 and 2 are complete.

Signage installation and the activation of ParkMobile in the University Circle area will begin the week of February 10th. The first phase of activation will be in areas where coin operated meters currently exist, as identified on the map in green. Once the signage is installed parkers will have the option to pay using the single space meter or the ParkMobile app.

The new areas, located on Martin Luther King Blvd. and Euclid Avenue, are identified on the map in red. Parkers are required to pay using the ParkMobile app in this area. Parkers will know the area is activated once the signage is installed. The City of Cleveland will provide parkers a two week grace period, in this area, and only issue warning notices for parking violations instead of monetary fines.

University Circle Map

Program Information

The goal of the street parking program is to provide convenient and available street parking. In areas with high demand, charging for the time spent parked on the curb is essential to encourage turnover and ensure there are available, convenient parking spaces in areas with street parking.

Expanding meter zones to new areas allows the city to update where we want street parking to be convenient and available as neighborhoods redevelop and new businesses open. Expanded zones are intended for commercial/mixed-use areas currently without coin-operated meters and with measurable or observable demand for street parking.

The City of Cleveland is partnering with ParkMobile to launch a digital parking solution to revolutionize the parking experience for both residents and guests.

The City will eventually phase out approximately 2,500 coin-based parking meters, which will transition into the uniform ParkMobile app-based parking system to modernize operations and improve efficiency and enforcement.

Through the ParkMobile system, users can digitally pay for parking by entering the zone number posted on nearby signs directly into the ParkMobile app or their mobile web browser. Non-smartphone users can also utilize ParkMobile by calling an interactive voice response service.

The City of Cleveland is installing new, state of the art, on-street parking pay stations throughout the Central Business District to improve the overall parking experience for residents and visitors in downtown Cleveland. Single space coin only meters will be removed and replaced with Flowbird pay stations. Also known as a multi-space meters, these units are solar powered devices used to manage multiple parking spaces.

The pay stations feature a touch screen solar powered display which provides instructions in four (4) languages: English, Spanish, French, and Mandarin. The pay station includes a pay-by-plate platform which accepts credit cards and coins.

Parkers may pay for parking at any pay station, as long as the customer enters the license plate number of the parked vehicle and the zone number for the location where they parked.

The City’s priority is to upgrade existing physical coin-operated meters (and in some cases, existing pay stations) to ParkMobile and Flowbird pay stations (currently Downtown only). However, given recent growth and development in certain areas of the city, there is the need and opportunity to expand metered parking zones to provide convenient and available on-street parking. In some neighborhoods, metered zones will be expanded or added as the City upgrades the parking meter system.

Under these updates, the hours and rates for on-street parking will not change at this time. However, legislation passed in September 2023 allows future adjustment of paid parking hours from the current 7:00 am - 6:00 pm to 7:00 am – 10:00 pm. Parking fees may also be adjusted in the future based on usage and demand for on-street parking spaces.