‘Parking angels’ prepare to flap wings to educate city drivers

Winnipeg drivers who may be confused by the removal of paystations in the city may end up being blessed by a “parking angel.”

Starting Thursday, staff from the Downtown Winnipeg BIZ and their counterparts in the Exchange and West End areas will patrol downtown streets and direct drivers to payment options that work for them as the city begins the process of removing its 250 parking meters by Aug. 31.

They will carry stacks of one-hour parking vouchers to use at their own discretion if someone is stuck without a way to pay — the city’s way of showing some grace as the change rolls out this summer, said Winnipeg Parking Authority manager of operations and facilities Lisa Patterson.

“They’ve been trained to look for any types of people that look like they need a little bit of help … they’re going to be acting as parking angels this summer,” she said Wednesday.

Among them are 17 Downtown BIZ staff, who were trained by the WPA Wednesday on the reasons for the change and how to educate people on the new system.

“It does create some barriers for people, and what we want to do is, we know it’s coming, so we want to do whatever we can to try to lessen that and make sure we can give someone as positive an experience as possible,” said Downtown BIZ director of operations Ken Berg.

The city announced in May it would remove all its paystations, citing $1 million in yearly savings to the city and the costs to replace the outdated technology. Winnipeg is the second city in North America to remove its paystations outright, joining Edmonton.

About 80 per cent of people who parked in Winnipeg in the first quarter of 2025 used an app.

The first paystations were dismantled Tuesday, and 300 new PayByPhone app parking signs have been put up across downtown with QR codes that will direct drivers to a payment site.

The signs are being installed on a trial basis, Patterson said.

“Other cities that we’ve talked to, they have some issues with people putting up fake QR stickers,” she said.

Those without smartphones, or who prefer to pay in cash, will have to purchase prepaid parking booklets. They can be purchased at the Parking Store at 495 Portage Ave., 311 counters at 510 Main St. or Accès-Access Saint-Boniface at 170 Goulet St.

By Friday, transit customer service centres at the Portage and Main concourse, Millennium Library, Susan A. Thompson Building at city hall and B-414 Osborne Street will have the booklets for sale.

The booklets carry 10 one-hour passes at two price points: a pack for “high demand” street parking costs $26.19 before tax, and 10 passes on a “low demand” street is $16.67 plus tax.

Booklets can also be purchased with a credit card and mailed to drivers by calling 311.

Parking signs will have a green decal at the bottom to indicate the street is high demand and requires the more expensive voucher. Patterson said people selling the booklets have been tasked with explaining this to buyers.

The green decals are expected to be added to signs on high demand streets by the end of the week. Drivers won’t be penalized for using a high-demand slip on a low-demand street, and Patterson suggested using a high-demand slip if a driver isn’t sure.

“We’re definitely going to show grace this summer, there is an enforcement strategy that goes along with PayByPhone,” she said.

The WPA has sold around 200 prepaid booklets since the announcement that paystations would be removed was made May 21.

Hesitation remains for some drivers.

Dasha Savchenko was scrambling to find parking Wednesday afternoon on King Street so she wouldn’t be late for her shift at House of Saturn, a tattoo parlour in the Exchange.

The 27-year-old usually uses PayByPhone to pay for street parking and said it works well, but if she’s run out of data on her cellphone, it’s been a problem.

She said the booklet system is too complicated and inconvenient to carry around.

“People, especially in this area, are already stressed driving here and they just want to make it simple,” she said. “It’ll take some getting used to.”

Laura Charr, an RRC Polytech instructor, parks at the corner William Avenue and King Street.

While using her phone to pay for parking is handy because it gives her notifications when it’s about to run out, she said it’s not always reliable if her phone struggles connecting to data or WiFi.

She said buying booklets in advance is too much work.

“When I’m finding parking on the street, it’s usually last minute.” Charr said. “If I buy those books and all the spots are taken, I can’t use it anyway.”

Carmen Nedohin, who leads the Manitoba chapter of the Canadian Association for Retired Persons, said the grace period should extend to at least a year.

“I just think that some of the decisions that are being made there are being made in a vacuum, without checking with the people who are going to be impacted first,” she said.

Patterson said the WPA is working on creating lunch sessions for seniors looking to learn about the new parking structure and walk them through the technology, in addition to other methods of “hands-on” outreach.

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca

matthew.frank@freepress.mb.ca