The first free hour of on-street parking will be discontinued
As of October, parking at Vantaa’s paid on-street parking spaces will be subject to a fee from the very first hour.
Changes to parking fees will impact on-street parking spaces in the centers of Tikkurila, Myyrmäki, and Kivistö, the Kuusijärvi parking area, and park-and-ride parking facilities.
Changes to on-street parking
Until now, the first hour of parking has been free at downtown on-street parking spaces and at Kuusijärvi.
The free hour will be discontinued as of the beginning of October, as soon as the traffic signs indicating parking subject to a charge have been updated. At the same time, paid parking hours on Saturdays will be extended in Tikkurila and Myyrmäki. Until now, parking has been subject to a fee on Saturdays from 9:00 to 15:00; in the future, paid parking hours will be from 9:00 to 17:00.
You can pay for parking with a mobile parking application or by using a parking meter where parking meters are available.
Otherwise, the on-street parking rates will remain unchanged. In the center of Tikkurila (zone 1), parking costs two euros per hour; outside the center of Tikkurila as well as in the centers of Myyrmäki and Kivistö (zone 2), parking costs one euro per hour. At the Kuusijärvi parking area (zone 3), parking costs €0.50 per hour. You can check paid parking areas in the City of Vantaa’s map service.
There will be an increase in the price of park-and-ride parking without a public transportation ticket
There will also be a change to park-and-ride parking. In the future, parking for sixteen (16) hours without a public transport ticket will cost seven euros, whereas until now, it amounted to five euros. You can park for longer as well for an additional fee.
The price of parking with a public transport ticket will remain unchanged. At some stations, park-and-ride parking is free with a public transportation ticket, while at others, an additional fee of one euro is charged. More information about park-and-ride parking is available on the HSL website.
The change will increase parking turnover and generate additional parking revenue
Removing the first free hour of parking will increase turnover at parking spaces, which helps to ensure that spaces remain available for short visits for as many people as possible.
In addition, the change encourages use of sustainable modes of transport by reducing support for free parking of private cars. At the same time, the change also shifts the costs associated with providing parking for parking users in accordance with the user-pays principle.
The change toward using sustainable modes of transport is important, since road traffic is the largest source of emissions in Vantaa, and those emissions have been declining only slowly.
Furthermore, the city is expected to receive more parking revenue when each hour of parking is charged in a consistent manner.
The change brings Vantaa into line with other major cities in Finland. Until now, Vantaa has been the only major city in the country where the first hour of parking has been free. Even after the change, however, on-street parking rates in Vantaa will remain lower than those in the other municipalities of the Helsinki metropolitan area.
