WASHINGTON — Parking meter enforcement hours in certain D.C. neighborhoods will be extended starting next month.
Under the D.C. budget that council members approved in late May, enforcement hours in the District’s busiest communities will be pushed to midnight. The extended hours begin Oct. 1.
Currently the cutoff is 10 p.m.
The two-hour extension will occur in what the D.C. Department of Transportation calls premium zones. Those areas include:
- Adams Morgan
- Georgetown Historic District
- Penn Quarter/Chinatown
- U Street NW Corridor
- Downtown Central Business District
- Maine Avenue and Water Streets SW
- The National Mall
- Wisconsin Avenue NW (from Van Ness Street to Western Avenue)
Additionally, parking tickets are now more expensive. On July 27, tickets for expired meters increased from $25 to $30. Tickets given to drivers who are parked over the time limit in a residential zone were hiked from $30 to $35.
According to the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute, the parking meter changes, both the price hike and the longer enforcement hours, will generate an additional $4 million for the city.
Arlington County officials are also considering a proposal to extend meter hours in an effort to free up parking spaces.