Transportation: Parking
[ On-Street Parking |
Parking Lots |
Tickets & Towing ]
If you drive, convenient and reasonably priced parking is important.
Unlike most large cities, parking in downtown Calgary is relatively plentiful.
There is an abundance of parkades, lots and metered street parking in the city
core. The population growth over the late 90s has strained parking available for
office workers. Outside the downtown core, parking (on-street and off) is generally plentiful (but be careful!).
Navigating downtown's one-way streets may seem like a challenge, but there's
usually a lot on any street. At red lights, of course, you can make both right and left turns from a one-way onto another one-way street.
On-Street Parking
Downtown, expect to feed the standard two hour meter with $2 for each hour. The
City of Calgary polices its street and metered
parking and fines offenders with $30.00 parking tickets.
Check the color of the meter!! Red means you can park there for just 15 minutes.
And make sure you do not park on a busy street after 3:30 pm. If it is a major
traffic artery, you won't just be ticketed, you will be towed! 11th Avenue and
5th Street in the "Beltline" area (just south of downtown) are two such surprise arteries.
On-street parking meters are enforced Monday through Saturday, from 8 am to 6
pm. The meters around Eau Claire Market by the Hard Rock Cafe are 24-hour meters,
seven days a week, and ENFORCED by Impark.
Be cautious when you park in the "Beltline" area south of downtown, between the railway tracks and 17th
Avenue, from Macleod Trail and 11th Street SW. This area has a two hour
parking restriction, to prevent downtown workers from tieing up the streets,
and to keep spots available for the retail businesses and restaurants.
Never park in a loading zone (unless you have commercial plates), or within 5 metres (yards) of a fire hydrant, alley, driveway, or
intersection or a fire hydrant. You WILL be ticketed.
Parking Lots
There are a lot of parking lots in downtown
Calgary either on the surface, above ground, or underground.
In the early 80's, many downtown buildings
were demolished in the construction frenzy of the oil boom. The untimely end
of the boom left plenty of unused land for conversion into parking lots. Just before
the 1988 Winter Olympic Games, lot owners paved and fenced their
lots, to improve appearances. Some lots have electrical plug-ins (look for
these in cold weather).
Most office buildings have parking for their tennants and visitors> there
are also several public parkades:
- McDougall Centre (between 4 and 5 Avenues, between
6 and 7 Streets)
- James Short, across from the Petro-Canada Building, accessed from 4th Avenue
- Centennial Parkade (along 9th Avenue between 6th and 5th Streets)
- Gulf Canada (between 9th and 10th Avenues between 4th and 2 Street)
The fire department prohibits propane tanks (found typically in taxis, campers
or R.V.s) in underground parkades. In that case, you must use a surface lot or
above-ground parkade.
Special Weekend Rates
On weekends and evenings several of the large downtown shopping complexes have reduced
parking rates to encourage shoppers.
| Location | Address | Saturday | Sunday |
Eaton's Store | 8th Ave between 4th & 5th Streets | $1 per 1/2 hour | free. |
Eaton's Centre | 4th St between 7th & 8th Avenues | $1 for first 4 hours, + $1.50 each additional 1/2 hour | $2 |
Eau Claire | in front of Eau Clair YMCA | $1/day | $1/day |
Eau Claire | off 2 Ave, between 2 St & 3 St | $2/day | $2/day |
Tickets & Towing
If you are the unlucky recipient of a City of Calgary parking ticket, you
have 15 days to pay before being mailed a final notice for payment, and
another 15 days to pay. If your ticket is still unpaid, then the
city sets a court date typically in one month.If you fail to appear in court, you
are found guilty by default and fined an additional $20.00 (on top of the ticket).
You can also GET ARRESTED for "Failure to Appear in Court" at which time you
will be asked to pay your outstanding fines...or else stay a while... Usually
the police are quite nice and often drive you by your local friendly instant
teller on the way to the police station. If you get caught by the police for
any other reason (say at a Checkstop) you will get detained... a rather nasty surprise.
Even if you successfully evade the police, the fines must be paid when you renew your driver's license or vehicle registration. You must first pay the
entire sum of your outstanding fine(s) before getting your renewal.
Should you happen to receive a parking ticket issued by anyone of the private
parking companies and do not pay it in the stipulated time, it usually ends
up with a collection agency. If violate the parking regulations on any of the
same company's lots (for example, if you are a repeat offender) then they may tow your car to the city impound lot.
Towed & Impounded Vehicles
If your car is towed, no need to panick. The city impound is only 50 meters north of the 39th Avenue C-Train stop on
the Southwest LRT line (City Police Impound, 3924 Manchester Rd. SE,
268-5977), and only two blocks east of MacLeod Trail. Every cab drivercan take
you there. The well-secured impound lot is open seven days a week 24-hours a day.
If your vehicle has
been impounded because of a parking infraction the same-day towing & storage
cost if $60.14 which may be paid with cash or a credit or debit card
(no cheques). Impounds following accidents or impaired driving will cost $64.65
for same-day pickups. $8.50 per day is added to your tab for storage after
one day.
Be prepared to show your valid license and proof of
ownership (they'll let you get it if its in your car). If you are not the owner of the vehicle tries to un-impound a
vehicle, then you must also have the owner's written authorization and proof of ownership (if its a rental car, the rental contract will
do).
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