Columbia Public Works to consider raising downtown parking meter price to $1 per hour
Ryan Shiner
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
The Columbia Department of Public Works at Wednesday’s Parking Commission meeting said it would recommend the City Council to raise downtown parking meter prices to $1 per hour.
On-street parking is currently 60 cents per hour from 8 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday through Saturday.
Columbia Public Works spokesman John Ogan wrote in an email that on-street parking rates near the University of Missouri’s campus is $1 per hour, and that public works is recommending the City Council raise the city’s rate in order to keep it consistent. Ogan wrote the increase “would bring parking revenue more in line with the cost of operating and maintaining our facilities.”
Data presented by the city shows more than half of street parking revenue (based on the hourly average) comes from the ParkMobile App, while 46% comes from coins and cash. That dataset excludes parking garages.
When including parking garages for the period of 2020-24, roughly 40% comes from debit/credit/Apple Pay/Google Pay, while 33% comes from ParkMobile and 27% is from coins and cash.
An information packet from the city says ,“Currently, commuters can only use coins and ParkMobile to pay for parking on the street and at a few lots. Card readers are installed in all city-owned parking structures, but street meters do not support these payments. Street meters do not support these payments. Therefore, the Debit/Credit/Apple Pay/Google Pay category reflects revenue solely from garages, as ParkMobile cannot be used in those facilities.”