On May 19, the Board of Regents approved an increase the hourly rates for meter and pay and display parking on the St. John’s campus.

The rate will increase from $0.75 to $1.50 per hour and will be implemented June 1 with all machines being switched to the new rate by July 1.

The parking rate increase will bring Memorial on par with the City of St. John’s rates and other universities across Canada, which range from $1.50-$5 per hour. Meter exempt and single-use/multi-day permits will also increase to a daily cost of $12 ($1.50 x 8 hours).

There are 242 meter spaces and 438 pay and display spaces on the St. John’s campus.

“Currently, those machines are coin operated. However, in order to make them more user-friendly, we’re introducing a pilot project of electronic payment,” said Kent Decker, vice-president (administration and finance). “You can still use coins but this would allow users to also pay with an app on their smartphone and update the display machine from anywhere on campus using that app.”

The electronic payment option is scheduled to be available in January 2017.