We are temporarily making some changes to how we manage and enforce parking in the city.
We’ve seen how parking needs have changed, and we want to do everything we can to make sure that our parking rules support people’s and businesses’ needs.
“These changes show how across the City of Seattle government, we are looking for ways to modify our approach to issues to respond to these extraordinary circumstances. Working with the Seattle Police Department and Mayor Jenny Durkan, we’ve creatively found ways to adapt the City’s parking enforcement and parking rules during this time to continue to help our residents and businesses.” – Sam Zimbabwe, Director of the Seattle Department of Transportation.
The following three changes will be in effect until further notice.
Learn more about these COVID-19 Parking updates on our website.
72-Hour Parking Rule
The City will suspend enforcement of the 72-hour rule, including recreational vehicles.
Remember to still follow posted signs regarding other time restrictions. Vehicles without Residential Parking Zone permits must still obey time limits in those zones.
Booting and Towing
The City will limit towing to situations which create safety hazards, block access, or create other major issues. The City will suspend booting of vehicles with unpaid parking tickets.
Temporary Restaurant Loading Zones
We are installing temporary loading zones at restaurants to support businesses and facilitate food pick-up. No payment is needed for quick food pickups in the 3-minute load zones.
See where we’ve installed the temporary signs on the COVID19 – Food Pick-Up Zone Map.
Restaurants can request temporary load zones by contacting us at 206-684-ROAD or 684-ROAD@seattle.gov.
All other standard parking rules will continue to be enforced.
This includes unpermitted parking or blocking access to an existing or created zone at clinics and hospitals, fire hydrants, police precincts or other public health and safety locations, and illegal parking in a bicycle or transit lane.
Payment will still be required for on-street parking at metered spaces and other parking time limits will continue to be enforced so that there will still be available parking spaces in front of businesses and other destinations.
Time limits and use of special zones will still be enforced (e.g., transit zones, shuttle bus zones, taxi zones).
SDOT and SPD will continue to evaluate potential additional changes to parking regulations and enforcement. For more information and for information on changes to parking citations, fines, and adjudication, visit our COVID-19 Parking page.