If you park in Miami, you can now get the first hour free

Starting Wednesday, the Miami Parking Authority will offer customers one hour of free on-street parking per day when they use the PaybyPhone app.

The Miami Parking Authority manages and develops on-and-off street parking in the city.

The department is also offering a 20 percent discount for the months of June and July to customers who pay monthly rates, said Alejandra Argudin, CEO of the parking authority.

“Some people are just going to be struggling to get back in, some people are going to be dying to just get back to work,” Argudin said. “And so we thought what better than to give the only thing that we can as a parking organization, which is time.”

Wednesday also marks Phase 1a of the city of Miami’s plan to reopen the economy. This includes the reopening of some parks, retail businesses, personal grooming businesses and offices, but not including restaurants. The reopening comes with mandatory safety requirements.

“As MPA complies with the city’s re-opening plans, management will take increased safety measures to welcome back its customers and ascertain that the following guidelines are observed: sanitizing garage elevators, parking lot and on-street pay-and-display machines and high-traffic touchpoint surfaces,” reads the department’s press release.

Argudin said she hopes the initiative will help fuel local business. More people opting to park their cars past the one free hour may also pump more money into the parking authority, which has seen a 93 percent drop in revenue since March 16.

“We want to see our community thrive again,” Argudin said.

Also on Wednesday, the parking authority will resume enforcing citations for metered parking violations. Argudin said the authority stopped enforcing violations on March 16, except in prohibited and restricted areas.

“We saw the occupancy drop, so really there was not a lot of movement on the street,” Argudin said. “We knew that the community as a whole is suffering through the crisis and we thought it was the right thing to do.”

But Argudin said the department won’t be taking an “aggressive” approach to enforcement, although she wants to signal that the parking authority is getting “back to business.”

Those who redeem their free hour with the PaybyPhone app can utilize a “touch-free” parking experience. Customers can also use remaining payment machines, which Argudin said are being cleaned on a more frequent basis, but they will be unable to receive the one hour of free parking.