If you drive, where to park is always an issue. Like most cities, parking in downtown Vancouver can be a bit of a challenge; parkades, lots and metred street parking are scarce in the city core. Be sure to have a roll of loonies ($1 coins) and quarters on hand to pay for the empty metre you find. Outside the downtown core parking is generally plentiful.
In the downtown core, be careful navigating on Vancouver's one-way streets to get to the desired lot (the bonus is: you can make both right turns and left turns on a red light onto a one-way street).
On-Street Parking
Downtown, expect to feed the standard two hour meter. You get three minutes for 10 cents, 7.5 minutes for a quarter and 30 minutes for $1. The City of Vancouver polices its street and metered parking with standard $20 parking tickets. Metres are in operation until 10:00 PM, 7 days a week. Also be careful not to park in rush hour zones during rush hour. Be careful of the color of the meter!! Red means you can only park for 15 minutes.
Do not attempt to park in a tour bus loading zone, within 5 metres (yards) of a fire hydrant, alley, driveway, or intersection. You WILL be ticketed.
Tickets & Towing
If you are one of the many unfortunates to get a City of Vancouver parking ticket, you have 15 days to pay until you are sent a final notice for payment which gives you another 15 days to remit payment. If your ticket remains unpaid then the city issues you a violation ticket which sets a court date scheduled approximately one month after the violation ticket has been issued.
If you fail to appear in court then you are found guilty in absence and an additional fine of $20.00 is added to the outstanding ticket. You can get also arrested for "Failure to Appear in Court" at which time you will be asked to pay your outstanding fines...or else stay a while... Usually the police are quite nice and often drive you by your local friendly instant teller on the way to the police station. But even if you happen to be lucky enough to evade the police ... the city will eventually collect its dues when you go to renew your driver's license or vehicle registration. You must first pay the entire sum of your outstanding fine(s) before getting your renewal. If you get a city parking ticket, we suggest you just pay it.
Should you happen to receive a parking ticket issued by anyone of the private parking companies around town and do not pay it in the stipulated time, then it will most likely make its way to a city collection company (we have yet to be contacted by anyone of these companies). If you continue to violate the parking regulations on any of their lots then they may tow your car to the city impound lot.
Towed & Impounded Vehicles
The well-secured impound is open seven days a week 24-hours a day. If your car gets towed from a Vancouver city street, call Buster's Towing at (604-685 7246) and head to the impound lot which has recently moved from under the Granville Street Bridge and is now near Main & Terminal. You can phone Buster's at 604-685-7246 Many private parking lots downtown (like the Impark ones) are patrolled by Drake Towing (604-251-3344)
If your vehicle has been impounded because of a city parking infraction, and you pick it up the same day, be prepared to pay a $70 towing charge and then a $9 a day charge when your vehicle is in the impound. Pay with cash or a credit - or debit card. The value of the parking ticket will vary with where and when you parked.
From private property, check for signs on the property: they will show the name of the towing company and their phone number (yes, Drake tows for Impark). Drake's impound lot is at 1553 Powell Street (604-251-3344). The rate for Private Impounds (towing off private property) is: $71 plus GST for the first 24 hours, $11/day storage thereafter
The impound also requires presentation of your valid license and proof of ownership . If somebody other than the owner of the vehicle tries to un-impound a vehicle, then they must have the owner's written authorization and proof of ownership with their own valid license.
Parking Lots
There are a lot of parking lots in downtown Vancouver. Parking in Vancouver comes in three flavours: surface, above ground, and underground.
There are more than 400 parking lots in Vancouver. Most office buildings have downtown parking for their tenants and visitors and there are several public parkades for the public.
