There are three secrets I know to parking downtown: use a scooter or motorcycle, loading zones, and for extreme park-fu, the commercial permit.

There are several designated loading zones in the downtown core, and most, if not all of them, don’t have parking meters. They thus revert to free parking after hours, usually at 6pm. Perfect for an early dinner and then a night on the town! The most prominent of these at-6 spots is at Georgia and Howe, on the east side of Howe Street just south of Georgia (across the street from the Art Gallery). Note that these spots fill up right at 6 and rarely empty. Indeed, daring parkers stop there ten minutes before time, betting that they’ll get lucky and avoid a ticket in the interval.

I encourage you to hunt for other spots; I won’t mention any more, partly because I have a very sweet loading zone freebie near my wife’s place of work, and, um, I need to keep it my useful little secret. Sorry.

Now, about the extreme park-fu of the Commercial Permit. You can still do this, but it’s pricier than it used to be. If I’m reading the bylaws right, it’s $200/year for the sticker (plus “permanent” 5cm-tall company-name lettering on both sides of your car, or temporary (magnetic) signs permitted by another $150 payment for a commercial plate) for some good but not perfect parking rights. You probably have to actually do commercial deliveries fairly often to bother.