Parking in Savannah is about to change
Written by Kelsey Sanchez
Parking in Savannah is tricky with nearly 3,000 meters between River Street to 37th Street. The time limits range from 30 minutes to 10 hours. Prices vary from 30 cents to 1 dollar per hour. Some meters take quarters while other use your credit card. If a driver runs out of quarters — the majority of meters are quarter meters — or remains parked longer than the meter time allows, they run the risk of receiving a parking citation.
Currently, weekends are free and drivers pay from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m, Monday through Friday. After a vote in April of this year, city leaders decided to increase the enforced metered times to Monday through Saturday 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. effective in 2018. The time limits will be eliminated and all meters will be priced at the same rate.
“The reason for extending enforcement until 8 p.m. is our downtown area is just as busy in the early evening as it is during the middle of the day,” Sean Brandon, bureau chief of management services for the City of Savannah, said. “[It’s] to create a turnover and therefore open up spaces to other users.”
The Chatham County-Savannah Metropolitan Planning Commission and the City of Savannah also plan to replace all quarter meters with electronic ones, totaling around 2,000 meters, before next year. This will cost the city nearly $2 million.
The city has created an app called ParkSavannah, a free download in the App Store and Google Play, to complement these changes and allow residents and tourists to pay for meter time from their phones. The app also allows them to monitor their parking time, view payment history and receive email receipts.
“The ultimate goal is to have a system that’s very easy to use —app, credit card, cash — and easy to understand — no time limits and uniform pricing,” Brandon said.
The city has already begun implementing this plan and will execute it substantially by November. The 534 free spaces throughout the city and the availability of public transportation such as the CAT bus lines and CAT bikes will remain the same.
