City of Knoxville new downtown parking hours

The City of Knoxville begins new downtown parking hours later this month. Instead of being limited to one hour of parking, downtown shoppers will now have two hours. The expanded parking hours in Knoxville begin on February 25. It covers the public on-street parking spaces on Gay Street between Summit Hill Drive and the Gay Street Bridge.

New parking hours encourage me to visit Gay Street more often. Finding parking spots on the street has been tough. Laugh if you want, but I can't shop in less than an hour. If the new policy helps, then I'm all for it.

New parking hours in downtown Knoxville will be tightly enforced. Police will be looking for violators between 6:00 am and midnight seven days a week. Warnings will be issued beginning on February 25. On March 11, towing and ticketing go into effect.



Knoxville has free weekend parking on Friday after 6:00 pm and through the weekend. The city owned garages of State Street and Market Square Mall garages are free and within a short walk to Gay Street.

Until now, I have always been confused about Gay Street parking. Some cars seemed to park there for hours. We would drive through looking for a space and then head to a garage. My family stroll along Gay Street and it seemed like the some of the same cars took up parking spaces for the entire time. That's not fair.

The new parking hours in Knoxville put a kibosh on my confusion. Now that it's clearer, I'll be coming to downtown more often. Places like the Downtown Grill and Brewery, Mast General store, romantic restaurants and shops on Gay Street will get more of my business.