Parking meters scrapped at St. John's hospital

Eastern Health will be getting rid of its parking meters at the Health Sciences Centre in St. John's this fall.

For years, the meters have been a big irritant for people visiting patients at the province's largest hospital. In addition to the cost, hospital officials say people complained of having to run back and forth to feed the meter or risk getting a ticket.

Within the next few months, the meters will be replaced with a gated parking lot.

Drivers will have the option of paying for parking inside the hospital or paying to an attendant at a kiosk on the way out. On Friday, Eastern Health's director of infrastructure support, Keith Bowden, said getting rid of the meters was inevitable.

"It's just too busy, too close to a university, so there's not too much we can do about that. But from the point of view of having to predict how long you're going to have to stay or come back out and feed a meter — that's been the other sort of half of the complaint problem, and I think that's something we're trying to do here."

Rates will increase as a result of the changes to the parking payment system.