Paid Parking Comes To Downtown Salem July 10 (Photo)
-07/07/25
The City is Converting Parking Downtown to Paid On-Street
Salem, Ore. – Starting July 10, visitors to downtown Salem will notice the addition of new parking stations, designed to make parking easier and create frequent availability of on-street parking spaces. In addition to paid on-street parking, the City will continue to provide free customer and visitor parking in the downtown parking structures.
"Metered parking supports more security and cleaning services for downtown Salem,” said Kristin Retherford, Community Planning and Development Director. “Moving from free on-street parking to paid parking can make it easier and more reliable to find parking in the area. Paid on-street parking makes more street spaces available for shoppers by shortening stays in on-street parking spaces, freeing up the space more frequently for new customers."
The new pay stations accept credit and debit cards in addition to coins for visitors only needing 10 to 20 minutes to grab a cup of coffee or run quick errands downtown. The City is also offering a mobile payment option via a new payment app called Beep Beep Salem, available for download on the Google Play Store or Apple iOS. You can download the app and set up your user account for free. A $0.35 fee applies to each transaction using the app, in addition to the $1.50 hourly parking rate. There are no transaction fees for use of a credit card at the pay stations. The cost for parking at an on-street space downtown will be $1.50 an hour and parking will be enforced 8 a.m. – 8 p.m., Monday through Saturday. The pay stations are license-plate based, so users will not need to display a receipt.
The downtown paid parking implementation is being paid for through Downtown Urban Renewal funds.
About the Pay Stations:
Need help with the pay stations? We have parking ambassadors and Downtown Enforcement Officers available to answer questions and help you with the new paid parking system.
You can find instructional videos for utilizing the new parking stations and the app as well as a downtown parking map and answers to frequently asked questions online.
About the App:
The new Beep Beep Salem parking app will be available for all on-street pay stations throughout the City including those by the Oregon State Capitol, Willamette University and at the Salem-Willamette Valley Airport beginning July 10. Users can download the app via www.beepbeepsalem.com, the Google Play store (Android) or Apple iOS (iPhone) applications. If you don’t have a smartphone, you can still pay for parking using the Beep Beep Salem web application by visiting https://salem.flowbirdapp.com and creating a user account. An instructional video about using the app is available.
Permits for Downtown Residents, Downtown Employees, Students, Volunteers and Jurors:
If you live or work downtown and plan to park in downtown Salem between the hours of 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. any day except Sundays and legal holidays (students, volunteers, employees, jurors), you are required to purchase a parking permit for the parking garages or pay at the new parking meters. To learn more about permit requirements and options, go to www.cityofsalem.net/parking.
Additional information about the paid parking in Salem is available at www.beepbeepsalem.com. Questions can be emailed to BeepBeep@cityofsalem.net.
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