Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

New Parking Meter Hours Take Effect Today

You now have to plug the meter until midnight if you want to visit Austin's downtown entertainment district on Thursday, Friday or Saturday.
Photo by Jessie Wang for KUT News
You now have to plug the meter until midnight if you want to visit Austin's downtown entertainment district on Thursday, Friday or Saturday.

If you like to frequent downtown businesses on the evenings of Thursday, Friday or Saturday nights, you’ll now have to pay until midnight for street parking. That's one of the changes to parking meter hours taking effect today.

The old schedule had people paying during weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.  Here are the new meter hours:

Downtown (From I-35 to Lamar Boulevard and Lady Bird Lake to 10th Street)

  • Monday to Wednesday: 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
  • Thursday and Friday: 8 a.m. to Midnight
  • Saturday: 11 a.m. to Midnight

Outside Downtown

  • Monday to Saturday: 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The Downtown Austin Alliance has this map of off-street parking lots downtown. The city has also installed more signs downtown to indicate where you can find parking garages.

Too drunk to drive home? You can now buy parking time into the next day if you want to leave your car downtown overnight. Just press the new yellow “next day purchase” button on the pay stations.

Nathan Bernier is the transportation reporter at KUT. He covers the big projects that are reshaping how we get around Austin, like the I-35 overhaul, the airport's rapid growth and the multibillion-dollar transit expansion Project Connect. He also focuses on the daily changes that affect how we walk, bike and drive around the city. Got a tip? Email him at nbernier@kut.org. Follow him on X @KUTnathan.
Related Content