Some parking pay stations on the fritz in South Lake Union area

Traffic enforcement officers have been asked to go a little easy on drivers parked on city streets in Seattle's South Lake Union neighborhood after reports that some of the parking pay stations experienced malfunctions this morning.

South Lake Union is the first neighborhood in the city to new parking rates that are slowly being rolled out across the city, said Rick Sheridan, a spokesman for the Seattle Department of Transportation. Transportation workers and employees of Parkeon, the company that sells the pay stations to the city, expect to fix the technical glitch that caused some clock-related malfunctions today, he said.

The Seattle City Council decided to raise rates for street parking as part of its 2009-2010 budget. In South Lake Union, it now costs $2 an hour to park in spots with a 2-hour maximum, and $1.25 an hour in 10-hour maximum spots, Sheridan said. Drivers can soon expect to pay between $1.50 and $2.50 an hour to park, depending on the parking demands of particular neighborhoods. In some places, especially residential neighborhoods, street parking will still be free. Implementation of the new rates is slowly being rolled out and should be completed by the end of March.

For more information on how much street parking will cost in a particular neighborhood, visit www.seattle.gov/Transportation/parking/rateincrease09.htm

At The Seattle Times, which is located in the South Lake Union neighborhood, at least two employees reported problems with the pay stations today. One worker was charged for 20 hours of parking in a 10-hour maximum spot; another worker was given a window sticker with Feb. 7 as the printed date, even though today is Feb. 6.

"Traffic enforcement has been made aware of the issue and have been asked to be lenient in ticketing," Sheridan said. But he encouraged anyone who was overcharged or believes they were unfairly ticketed by traffic enforcement officers to call 206-684-5260.