Parking Meters

The Los Angeles Department of Transportation operates approximately 40,000 metered parking spaces for public use. Parking meters encourage turnover, allowing more people access to high-demand parking spaces.

Throughout the City, LADOT operates approximately 37,000 on-street metered spaces in 71 Parking Meter Zones and an additional 3,000 spaces in 60 off-street lots and garages. Parking meters are generally located in retail areas, where they encourage the turnover of vehicles in high-demand parking spaces, thus creating more available parking for customers.

Parking meters also help fight traffic congestion and pollution when their rates match parking demands. When parking rates are underpriced, spaces are almost always full, and drivers spend a long time hunting for a nearby space, adding to travel times, congestion and pollution. LADOT is currently evaluating meter rates and hours of operation City-wide to ensure that parking meters are effective and best serve their communities.

The Department strives to maintain all parking meters in excellent working order, but faces the growing challenges of vandalism and aging meters. Please report a malfunctioning parking meter immediately when you observe one by calling the Meter Hotline at (877) 215-3958. Inoperable meters can also be reported online. If you believe you received a parking citation at a malfunctioning parking meter and would like to contest the citation, please call the Parking Violations Bureau at (866) 561-9742.

		LADOT is pursuing new technology to improve reliability and convenience for the City’s parking patrons. Current new-technology projects include:
		Park & Pay Stations – For groups of multiple parking spaces Card & Coin Meters – Single-space parking meters ExpressPark – A demand-based parking management project

Park & Pay Stations

In 2008, Park & Pay Stations replaced traditional parking meters in 10 on-street areas and 30 City parking lots. In those locations, a kiosk handles payment for multiple parking spaces in one area.

The Park & Pay Stations are easy to use: Just enter the space number found next to your parking space, insert your payment, and go on your way without having to return a ticket to your vehicle. Pay stations accept coins, credit and debit cards and even cell phone payments using mPark. Review our Frequently Asked Questions for more Park & Pay details.

The Department is currently evaluating this new technology and would appreciate your comments.

Card & Coin Meters

An ambitious program to upgrade more than 10,000 meters has further updated the City's parking meter inventory. Throughout Summer 2010, state-of-the-art, single-space Card & Coin Meters replaced aging parking meters in the busiest Parking Meter Districts across Los Angeles. With the installation complete, 33 percent of the City’s metered spaces now accept credit card payments, and Los Angeles boasts the largest number of solar-powered parking meters in the nation.

Card & Coin Meters accept coins like traditional parking meters, but, similar to Park & Pay stations, they also accept credit and debit card payments. The new meters’ LCD screens make it easier to understand parking restrictions, having been programmed to show not only the parking rate, time limit and operational hours but also draw attention to impending street cleaning or tow-away/no-stopping periods. The new meters are beneficial to City managers because, when malfunctioning, they automatically signal their condition to LADOT.

A new enforcement policy – Pay to Park – is being adopted with the Card & Coin Meters' installation. The Pay to Park policy requires that drivers submit payment to park at Card & Coin Meters, unless they are legally exempt. Drivers who park unpaid or at broken Card & Coin Meters are subject to citation. The meters to which this policy pertains have been clearly marked with a red sticker indicating the Park to Pay policy.

ExpressPark

Combining demand-based pricing principles and technology, the City’s newest parking meter-related program, the ExpressPark Intelligent Parking Management Project, is slated to begin in Downtown Los Angeles in Summer 2011. The one-year demonstration project, expected to achieve a number of environmental and congestion reduction goals, is primarily being funded with a large federal grant.

ExpressPark proposes to guide drivers toward open parking spaces and display current parking rates. The rates in the project area will be determined in real-time by the number of vehicles parked there, the time of day and drivers’ length of stay.

The project is expected to enable drivers to easily find parking Downtown by allowing some parking spaces to remain vacant. Since drivers can head directly to their parking destination, less time and fuel will be wasted in prolonged searches for parking, curbing air pollution and congestion. In turn, fewer cruising cars will improve traffic flow for other drivers and transit buses. The demonstration’s visionaries hope the project will also encourage drivers to use alternative transportation options more often.