Toronto’s coin, single-space parking meters to be removed

Toronto's coin-only parking meters are set to be removed when alternatives are lined up. Staff say there are still 176 across the city.

The last of Toronto’s coin parking meters are set to vanish from the city’s streets over the next year as officials phase new payments in and old systems out.

During a marathon year-end council session, elected officials in Toronto agreed to remove the last remaining coin parking meters from city streets “once alternative payment systems” are in place for them.

A City of Toronto staff report said 176 on-street single-space meters still exist across the city, though the vast majority of parking spaces are served by mobile payments or more modern machines.

The old-school meters operate by putting a coin into the small grey structures and then turning the dial of the metre next to the spot you want to park. A small digital screen on the device then shows how long you’ve paid for the parking place.

The system was brought into Toronto decades ago but has fallen out of favour. The machines are so under-used they generated an average of 18 cents per spot, per day, city figures show. That’s not enough to cover the costs of their maintenance.

City staff said the last few single-space parking meters were at the end of their lives and would require “extensive” repairs to keep them going.

The report called the remaining meters “high maintenance, low revenue generating” systems.

At its Dec. 13 meeting, council agreed with city staff’s request to phase them out but stopped short of committing to a date when all single-space coin meters would officially be removed.