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How about 'free'? St. John's comes up with temporary solution for broken meters

Broken parking meters makes low turnover a big problem for restaurant owner

After recently warning St. John's residents they could be ticketed for parking too long at broken meters, the city has come up with a temporary solution: free parking zones.

The City of St. John's today announced it will be marking certain areas with missing or vandalized meters to let drivers know that free parking is available — with time limits.

Proposed areas with free two-hour parking:

  • Duckworth Street, from Cochrane Street to Cavendish Square.

  • Freshwater Road, near Leo's and Ches's restaurants.

  • Harvey Road, across from Tim Hortons and the Paramount Building.

  • Rawlins Cross lot.

  • Water Street from Prescott Street to Gill's Cove.

Proposed areas with four hours of free parking:

  • George Street, from Springdale Street to Waldegrave Street.

  • Lemarchant Road, from Pleasant Street to Lime Street.

  • Cavendish Square.

  • Cathedral Street.

  • Church Hill.

  • Duckworth Street, east of Cavendish Square.

  • New Gower Street, west of Springdale Street.

In a press release, the city says the free parking zones, with time limits, were decided on through consultation with the business community and are intended as a temporary measure to "encourage regular turnover for on-street parking spaces in the downtown core."

The press release does not indicate how it plans to enforce the time limits, but says the city will announce on its website "in the coming weeks" when enforcement would begin.

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