Overview
In October 2023, the City of Cleveland began updating on-street parking services to better provide convenient and available street parking. This process includes technology upgrades, changes to parking rules and regulations, and expanding metered zones.
The City of Cleveland is working with ParkMobile and Flowbird to provide new tools and technologies to manage and expand metered on-street parking. ParkMobile provides a mobile application, website, and phone service to pay for parking sessions, and is a significant upgrade from the coin-only meters currently available. Flowbird is the provider of pay stations located Downtown where users can pay for parking sessions without using a mobile application.
These tools will also allow the City to eventually roll out additional features, such as managing parking sessions through the mobile app, progressive parking rates, and demand-responsive pricing.
Current Implementation – Downtown and Ohio City Enhancements
The City of Cleveland is updating its on-street parking system to better support vibrant neighborhoods, local businesses, and residents. These changes are designed to improve turnover, make it easier to find parking, and reinvest revenue into safer, more accessible streets.
Starting January 2026, these updates include:
New Standard Rates
- $1.50 per hour standardized base rate
- Extend parking up to 4 hours
- 1st and 2nd hour: $1.50 per hour
- 3rd hour: $3.00
- 4th hour: $4.50
- Total cost for a four-hour parking session: $10.50
- Special event zones around the stadiums to price parking appropriately and ensure greater availability during events.
Updated Enforcement Hours
- Ohio City Paid Parking: 7:00 AM – 10:00 PM, Monday through Saturday
- Downtown Paid Parking: 7:00 AM – 10:00 PM, 7 days/week
Ohio City Map
Downtown Map
Implementation Complete – University Circle
The City’s parking meter update in Downtown Cleveland and Ohio City phase 1 and 2 are complete.
Signage installation and the activation of ParkMobile in the University Circle area will begin the week of February 10th. The first phase of activation will be in areas where coin operated meters currently exist, as identified on the map in green. Once the signage is installed parkers will have the option to pay using the single space meter or the ParkMobile app.
The new areas, located on Martin Luther King Blvd. and Euclid Avenue, are identified on the map in red. Parkers are required to pay using the ParkMobile app in this area. Parkers will know the area is activated once the signage is installed. The City of Cleveland will provide parkers a two week grace period, in this area, and only issue warning notices for parking violations instead of monetary fines.
Program Information
The goal of the street parking program is to provide convenient and available street parking. In areas with high demand, charging for the time spent parked on the curb is essential to encourage turnover and ensure there are available, convenient parking spaces in areas with street parking.
Expanding meter zones to new areas allows the city to update where we want street parking to be convenient and available as neighborhoods redevelop and new businesses open. Expanded zones are intended for commercial/mixed-use areas currently without coin-operated meters and with measurable or observable demand for street parking.
The City of Cleveland is partnering with ParkMobile to launch a digital parking solution to revolutionize the parking experience for both residents and guests.
The City will eventually phase out approximately 2,500 coin-based parking meters, which will transition into the uniform ParkMobile app-based parking system to modernize operations and improve efficiency and enforcement.
Through the ParkMobile system, users can digitally pay for parking by entering the zone number posted on nearby signs directly into the ParkMobile app or their mobile web browser. Non-smartphone users can also utilize ParkMobile by calling an interactive voice response service.
The City of Cleveland has installed new, state-of-the-art on-street parking pay stations throughout the Central Business District and Ohio City to enhance the parking experience for residents and visitors. Single-space, coin-only meters have been replaced with Flowbird multi-space pay stations. These solar-powered devices manage multiple parking spaces and feature a touchscreen display with instructions in four languages: English, Spanish, French, and Mandarin. The stations support a pay-by-plate system and accept both credit cards and coins. Parkers can pay at any station by entering their vehicle’s license plate number and the zone number where they are parked.
The City’s priority is to upgrade existing physical coin-operated meters (and in some cases, existing pay stations) to ParkMobile and Flowbird pay stations (currently Downtown only). However, given recent growth and development in certain areas of the city, there is the need and opportunity to expand metered parking zones to provide convenient and available on-street parking. In some neighborhoods, metered zones will be expanded or added as the City upgrades the parking meter system.
Under these updates, the hours and rates for on-street parking will not change at this time. However, legislation passed in September 2023 allows future adjustment of paid parking hours from the current 7:00 am - 6:00 pm to 7:00 am – 10:00 pm. Parking fees may also be adjusted in the future based on usage and demand for on-street parking spaces.