New signs have appeared in Courthouse indicating changes in how much it costs to park.
The signs stand at the intersections of N. Courthouse Road with 13th Street N. and Clarendon Blvd with N. Barton Street, indicating both the number and price of available parking spots in real time.
Arlington has implemented changes in the pricing of thousands of parking spots since the “performance parking” pilot project launched in March.
Arlington’s parking rates were previously capped at $1.75 per hour at short-term meters and $1.50 per hour at long-term meters. However, some spots along the Rosslyn-Ballston and Route 1 corridors now cost as much as $3.25 per hour or as little as $1.25.
Drivers can search the pricing of specific spots on a county dashboard.
The goal of the initiative is to make it easier to park in areas that currently have high parking demand, encouraging drivers to go to less popular areas.
This is meant to reduce the time drivers spend looking for spots and drive down issues like double parking and erratic driving.
“We will be installing more signs in additional neighborhoods within the Performance Parking Pilot project corridors soon and testing different formats and layouts,” a project page says.
About 4,500 parking spaces fall within the scope of the project, which is funded entirely through a fund at the Virginia Department of Transportation. The spots are equipped with sensors that detect whether a vehicle has parked and how long it stays put.
During the three-year pilot, the county plans to implement gradual pricing changes guided by collected data. The project allows prices to vary based on the time of day and length of stay, but it does not involve surge pricing.
The latest round of price changes, which went into effect in September, increased rates at 51% of metered parking spaces in the project area, decreased costs at 11% of spaces and implemented a combination of increases and decreases at 10% of spaces.
While most areas don’t have signs indicating current prices, rates are listed on ParkMobile and eXactnav apps as well as on parking meters.
